In this paper, we give the sharp upper bound for the number of vertices with positive curvature in a planar graph with nonnegative combinatorial curvature. Based on this, we show that the automorphism group of a planar—possibly infinite—graph with nonnegative combinatorial curvature and positive total curvature is a finite group, and give an upper bound estimate for the order of the group.

Solving a longstanding problem on equiangular lines, we determine, for each given fixed angle and in all sufficiently large dimensions, the maximum number of lines pairwise separated by the given angle. Fix 0<α<1. Let N_α(d) denote the maximum number of lines through the origin in R^d with pairwise common angle arccos α. Let k denote the minimum number (if it exists) of vertices in a graph whose adjacency matrix has spectral radius exactly (1−α)/(2α). If k<∞, then N_α(d)= ⌊ k(d−1)/(k−1) ⌋ for all sufficiently large d, and otherwise N_α(d)=d+o(d). In particular, N_{1/(2k−1)}(d)= ⌊ k(d−1)/(k−1) ⌋ for every integer k≥2 and all sufficiently large d. A key ingredient is a new result in spectral graph theory: the adjacency matrix of a connected bounded degree graph has sublinear second eigenvalue multiplicity.

We give a solution to the inverse problem (given a prescribed function, find a corresponding group) for large classes of speed, entropy, isoperimetric profile, return probability and Lp-compression functions of finitely generated groups. For smaller classes, we give solutions among solvable groups of exponential volume growth. As corollaries, we prove a recent conjecture of Amir on joint evaluation of speed and entropy exponents and we obtain a new proof of the existence of uncountably many pairwise non-quasi-isometric solvable groups, originally due to Cornulier and Tessera. We also obtain a formula relating the Lp-compression exponent of a group and its wreath product with the cyclic group forp in [1,2].

We study the random field Ising model on Z^2 where the external field is given by i.i.d. Gaussian variables with mean zero and positive variance. We show that the effect of boundary conditions on the magnetization in a finite box decays exponentially in the distance to the boundary.

We construct the defining data of two-dimensional topological field theories (TFTs) enriched by non-invertible symmetries/topological defect lines. Simple formulae for the three-point functions and the lasso two-point functions are derived, and crossing symmetry is proven. The key ingredients are open-to-closed maps and a boundary crossing relation, by which we show that a diagonal basis exists in the defect Hilbert spaces. We then introduce regular TFTs, provide their explicit constructions for the Fibonacci, Ising and Haagerup ℋ3 fusion categories, and match our formulae with previous bootstrap results. We end by explaining how non-regular TFTs are obtained from regular TFTs via generalized gauging.