The classical Schläfli formula relates the variations of the dihedral angles of a smooth family of polyhedra in a space-form to the variation of the enclosed volume. We give higher analogues of this formula: for each p, we prove a simple formula relating the variation of the volumes of the codimension p faces to the variation of the ‘curvature’ – the volumes of the duals of the links in the convex case – of codimension p+2 faces. It is valid also for ideal polyhedra, or for polyhedra with some ideal vertices. This extends results of Suárez-Peiró. The proof is through analoguous smooth formulas. Some applications are described.

We give another proof of Ekedahl, Lando, Shapiro, and Vainshtein's remarkable formula expressing Hurwitz numbers (counting covers of P1 with specified simple branch points, and specified branching over one other point) in terms of Hodge integrals. Our proof uses virtual localization on the moduli space of stable maps. We describe how the proof could be simplified by the proper algebro-geometric definition of a ‘relative space’. Such a space has recently been defined by J. Li.

Let F be a non-archimedean local field with residue class field k. Put G=GL2(F), Γ=PGL2(k) and let X denote the Bruhat–Tits tree of G. We construct a one-dimensional simplicial complex $\tilde X$, equipped with an action of G × Γ and with a G × Γ-equivariant simplicial projection $\pi: \tilde X\to X$ (for the trivial action of Γ on X). We prove that the cohomology with compact support $H^1_c(\tilde X\open C)$ contains nontrivial representations of G (in particular positive level supercuspidal representations).

The purpose of this paper is to determine the b-functions of all the prehomogeneous vector spaces associated to nilpotent orbits in the Dynkin–Kostant theory for all the complex simple algebraic groups of exceptional type. Our method to calculate b-functions is based on the structure theorem for b-functions of several variables and the functional equations for them.

The study of the Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian knots was started by D. Fuchs and S. Tabachnikov who showed that the groups of C-valued Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian and of framed knots in the standard contact R3 are canonically isomorphic. Recently we constructed the first examples of contact 3-manifolds where Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian and of framed knots are different. Moreover in these examples Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian knots distinguish Legendrian knots that are isotopic as framed knots and homotopic as Legendrian immersions. This raised the question what information about Legendrian knots can be captured using Vassiliev invariants. Here we answer this question by showing that for any contact 3-manifold with a cooriented contact structure the groups of Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian knots and of knots that are nowhere tangent to a vector field that coorients the contact structure are canonically isomorphic.