We prove an extension theorem for effective purely log-terminal pairs ($X, S$+$B$) of non-negative Kodaira dimension $${\kappa (K_X+S+B)\ge 0}$$ . The main new ingredient is a refinement of the Ohsawa–Takegoshi$L$^{2}extension theorem involving singular Hermitian metrics.

In 1971, McMullen and Walkup posed the following conjecture, which is called the generalized lower bound conjecture: If$P$is a simplicial$d$-polytope then its$h$-vector ($h$_{0},$h$_{1}, …,$h$_{$d$}) satisfies $$ {h_0}\leq {h_1}\leq \ldots \leq {h_{{\left\lfloor {{d \left/ {2} \right.}} \right\rfloor }}} $$ . Moreover, if$h$_{$r$−1}=$h$_{$r$}for some $$ r\leq \frac{1}{2}d $$ then$P$can be triangulated without introducing simplices of dimension ≤$d$−$r$.

The purpose of this article is to prove that the forcing axiom for completely proper forcings is inconsistent with the continuum hypothesis. This answers a longstanding problem of Shelah.

We consider$Thurston maps$, i.e., branched covering maps$f:S$^{2}→$S$^{2}that are$post-critically finite$. In addition, we assume that$f$is$expanding$in a suitable sense. It is shown that each sufficiently high iterate$F$=$f$^{$n$}of$f$is$semi-conjugate$to$z$^{$d$}:$S$^{1}→$S$^{1}, where$d$= deg F. More precisely, for such an$F$we construct a$Peano curve γ$:$S$^{1}→$S$^{2}(onto), such that$F$∘$γ$($z$) =$γ$($z$^{$d$}) (for all$z$∈$S$^{1}).

Let$k$be an algebraically closed field. We show that the Cremona group of all birational transformations of the projective plane $$ \mathbb{P}_{\mathbf{k}}^2 $$ is not a simple group. The strategy makes use of hyperbolic geometry, geometric group theory and algebraic geometry to produce elements in the Cremona group that generate non-trivial normal subgroups.