This article considers the existence and regularity of Kähler-Einstein metrics on a compact Kähler manifold M with edge singularities with cone angle 2πβ along a smooth divisor D. We prove existence of such metrics with negative, zero and some positive cases for all cone angles 2πβ ≤ 2π. The results in the positive case parallel those in the smooth case. We also establish that solutions of this problem are polyhomogeneous, i.e., have a complete asymptotic expansion with smooth coefficients along D for all 2πβ < 2π.

Well-known conjectures of Tian predict that existence of canonical Kähler metrics should be equivalent to various notions of properness of Mabuchi's K-energy functional. In some instances this has been verified, especially under restrictive assumptions on the automorphism group. We provide counterexamples to the original conjecture in the presence of continuous automorphisms. The construction hinges upon an alternative approach to properness that uses in an essential way the metric completion with respect to a Finsler metric and its quotients with respect to group actions. This approach also allows us to formulate and prove new optimal versions of Tian's conjecture in the setting of smooth and singular Kähler-Einstein metrics, with or without automorphisms, as well as for Kähler-Ricci solitons. Moreover, we reduce both Tian's original conjecture (in the absence of automorphisms) and our modification of it (in the presence of automorphisms) in the general case of constant scalar curvature metrics to a conjecture on regularity of minimizers of the Kenergy in the Finsler metric completion. Finally, our results also resolve Tian's conjecture on the Moser-Trudinger inequality for Fano manifolds with Kähler-Einstein metrics.

In this article and in its sequel we propose the study of certain discretizations of geometric evolution equations as an approach to the study of the existence problem of some elliptic partial differential equations of a geometric nature as well as a means to obtain interesting dynamics on certain infinite-dimensional spaces. We illustrate the fruitfulness of this approach in the context of the Ricci flow, as well as another flow, in Kähler geometry. We introduce and study dynamical systems related to the Ricci operator on the space of Kähler metrics that arise as discretizations of these flows. We pose some problems regarding their dynamics. We point out a number of applications to well-studied objects in Kähler and conformal geometry such as constant scalar curvature metrics, Kähler-Ricci solitons, Nadel-type multiplier ideal sheaves, balanced metrics, the Moser-Trudinger-Onofri inequality, energy functionals and the geometry and structure of the space of Kähler metrics. E.g., we obtain a new sharp inequality strengthening the classical Moser-Trudinger-Onofri inequality on the two-sphere.

Motivated by the study of Fano type varieties we define a new class of log pairs that we call asymptotically log Fano varieties and strongly asymptotically log Fano varieties. We study their properties in dimension two under an additional assumption of log smoothness, and give a complete classification of two dimensional strongly asymptotically log smooth log Fano varieties. Based on this classification we formulate an asymptotic logarithmic version of Calabi's conjecture for del Pezzo surfaces for the existence of K\"ahler--Einstein edge metrics in this regime. We make some initial progress towards its proof by demonstrating some existence and non-existence results, among them a generalization of Matsushima's result on the reductivity of the automorphism group of the pair, and results on log canonical thresholds of pairs. One by-product of this study is a new conjectural picture for the small angle regime and limit which reveals a rich structure in the asymptotic regime, of which a folklore conjecture concerning the case of a Fano manifold with an anticanonical divisor is a special case.Comment: v2: added reference

This article introduces the degenerate special Lagrangian equation (DSL) and develops the basic analytic tools to construct and study its solutions. The DSL governs geodesics in the space of positive graph Lagrangians in $\mathbb{C}^n.$ Existence of geodesics in the space of positive Lagrangians is an important step in a program for proving existence and uniqueness of special Lagrangians. Moreover, it would imply certain cases of the strong Arnold conjecture from Hamiltonian dynamics. We show the DSL is degenerate elliptic. We introduce a space-time Lagrangian angle for one-parameter families of graph Lagrangians, and construct its regularized lift. The superlevel sets of the regularized lift define subequations for the DSL in the sense of Harvey--Lawson. We extend the existence theory of Harvey--Lawson for subequations to the setting of domains with corners, and thus obtain solutions to the Dirichlet problem for the DSL in all branches. Moreover, we introduce the calibration measure, which plays a r\^ole similar to that of the Monge--Amp\`ere measure in convex and complex geometry. The existence of this measure and regularity estimates allow us to prove that the solutions we obtain in the outer branches of the DSL have a well-defined length in the space of positive Lagrangians.Comment: 42 pages; implemented referee suggestions, added appendix B on geometric formulation of DSL, modified Theorems 1.2 and 8.1 to reflect correction in Lemma 8.