In two very detailed, technical, and fundamental works, Jun Li constructed a theory of Gromov-Witten invariants for a singular scheme of the gluing form Y_1\cup_D Y_2 that arises from a degeneration Y_1\cup_D Y_2 and a theory of relative Gromov-Witten invariants for a codimension-1 relative pair Y_1\cup_D Y_2 . As a summit, he derived a degeneration formula that relates a finite summation of the usual Gromov-Witten invariants of a general smooth fiber Y_1\cup_D Y_2 of Y_1\cup_D Y_2 to the Gromov-Witten invariants of the singular fiber Y_1\cup_D Y_2 via gluing the relative pairs Y_1\cup_D Y_2 and Y_1\cup_D Y_2 . The finite sum mentioned above depends on a relative ample line bundle Y_1\cup_D Y_2 on Y_1\cup_D Y_2 . His theory has already applications to string theory and mathematics alike. For other new applications of Jun Li's theory, one needs a refined degeneration formula that depends on a curve class Y_1\cup_D Y_2 in Y_1\cup_D Y_2 or Y_1\cup_D Y_2 , rather than on the line bundle Y_1\cup_D Y_2 . Some monodromy effect has to be taken care of to deal with this. For the simple but useful case of a degeneration Y_1\cup_D Y_2 that arises from blowing up a trivial family Y_1\cup_D Y_2 , we explain how the details of Jun Li's work can be employed to reach such a desired degeneration formula. The related set Y_1\cup_D Y_2 of admissible triples adapted to Y_1\cup_D Y_2 that appears in the formula can be obtained via an analysis on the intersection numbers of relevant cycles and a study of Mori cones that appear in the problem. This set is intrinsically determined by Y_1\cup_D Y_2 and the normal bundle Y_1\cup_D Y_2 of the smooth subscheme Y_1\cup_D Y_2 in Y_1\cup_D Y_2 to be blown up.

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Let X denote an equivariant embedding of a connected reductive group G over an algebraically closed field k. Let B denote a Borel subgroup of G and let Z denote a B B-orbit closure in X. When the characteristic of k is positive and X is projective we prove that Z is globally F-regular. As a consequence, Z is normal and CohenMacaulay for arbitrary X and arbitrary characteristics. Moreover, in characteristic zero it follows that Z has rational singularities. This extends earlier results by the second author and M. Brion.

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We describe the closure of the strata of Abelian differentials with prescribed type of zeros and poles, in the projectivized Hodge bundle over the Deligne–Mumford moduli space of stable curves with marked points. We provide an explicit characterization of pointed stable differentials in the boundary of the closure, both a complex analytic proof and a flat geometric proof for smoothing the boundary differentials, and numerous examples. The main new ingredient in our description is a global residue condition arising from a full order on the dual graph of a stable curve.