K-semistability is equivariant volume minimization (Q1681619)

Let $V$ be a complex projective manifold that is Fano, i.e. the anticanonical bundle $-K_V$ is ample. The problem of describing the situations when $V$ admits a special metric has received a lot of attention in the last years, culminating in the proof of the equivalence of $K$-stability and existence of Kähler-Einstein metrics by \textit{X. Chen} et al. [J. Am. Math. Soc. 28, No. 1, 183--197 (2015; Zbl 1312.53096)] and \textit{G. Tian} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 68, No. 7, 1085--1156 (2015; Zbl 1318.14038)]. In this paper the author proposes to describe $K$-semistability in terms of valuations: for a Fano manifold $V$, one considers the space of real valuations $\text{Val}_{X,o}$ on the affine cone $X=C(V, -K_V)$ with center the vertex $o$. On the space of valuations the normalized volume functional $\widehat{\text{vol}}$ is defined to be $A_X(v)^n \text{vol}(v)$ where $A_X(v)$ is the log-discrepancy of $v$ and $\text{vol}(v)$ its volume. In [Math. Z. 289, No. 1--2, 491--513 (2018; Zbl 1423.14025)] the author conjectured that the Fano manifold $V$ is $K$-semistable if and only if $\widehat{\text{vol}}$ is minimized at the canonical valuation $\text{ord}_V$. In this paper he proves that $V$ is $K$-semistable if and only if $\widehat{\text{vol}}$ is minimized among $\mathbb C^*$-invariant valuations. Moreover $\text{ord}_V$ is the unique minimizer among all $\mathbb C^*$-invariant quasimonomial valuations. We refer to the beautifully written paper for the definitions of these notions and a detailed description of the proofs. Combined with the author's recent preprint with \textit{Y. Liu} [``Kähler-Einstein metrics and volume minimization'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1602.05094}], the results of this paper establish his conjecture.