A new tautological equation of $\bar{M}_{3,1}$ in codimension 3 is derived and proved, using the invariance condition explained in earlier works.

We introduce the notion of pseudo-N´eron model and give new examples of varieties admitting pseudo-N´eron models other than Abelian varieties. As an application of pseudo-N´eron models, given a scheme admitting a finite morphism to an Abelian scheme over a positive-dimensional base, we prove that for a very general genus-0, degree-d curve in the base with d sufficiently large, every section of the scheme over the curve is contained in a unique section over the entire base.

We establish a generic vanishing theorem for surfaces in characteristic p that lift to p and use it for classification of surfaces of general type with Euler characteristic p and large Albanese dimension.

For ordinary flops, the correspondence defined by the graph closure is shown to give equivalence of Chow motives and to preserve the Poincaré pairing. In the case of simple ordinary flops, this correspondence preserves the big quantum cohomology ring after an analytic continuation over the extended Kähler moduli space. For Mukai flops, it is shown that the birational map for the local models is deformation equivalent to isomorphisms. This implies that the birational map induces isomorphisms on the full quantum rings and all the quantum corrections attached to the extremal ray vanish.

The main goal of this paper is to prove the following two conjectures for genus up to two: 1. Witten's conjecture on the relations between higher spin curves and Gelfand--Dickey hierarchy. 2. Virasoro conjecture for target manifolds with conformal semisimple Frobenius manifolds. The main technique used in the proof is the invariance of tautological equations under loop group action.