Using geometric methods, we improve on the function field version of the Burgess bound and show that, when restricted to certain special subspaces, the Möbius function over $\mathbb{F}_q[T]$ can be mimicked by Dirichlet characters. Combining these, we obtain a level of distribution close to $1$ for the Möbius function in arithmetic progressions and resolve Chowla's $k$-point correlation conjecture with large uniformity in the shifts. Using a function field variant of a result by Fouvry-Michel on exponential sums involving the Möbius function, we obtain a level of distribution beyond $1/2$ for irreducible polynomials, and establish the twin prime conjecture in a quantitative form. All these results hold for finite fields satisfying a simple condition.

We prove that on any log Fano pair of dimension $n$ whose stability threshold is less than $\frac{n+1}{n}$, any valuation computing the stability threshold has a finitely generated associated graded ring. Together with earlier works, this implies that (a) a log Fano pair is uniformly K-stable (resp. reduced uniformly K-stable) if and only if it is K-stable (resp. K-polystable); (b) the K-moduli spaces are proper and projective; and combining with the previously known equivalence between the existence of Kähler-Einstein metric and reduced uniform K-stability proved by the variational approach, (c) the Yau-Tian-Donaldson conjecture holds for general (possibly singular) log Fano pairs.

In this paper and its sequel, we construct a set of finite energy smooth initial data for which the corresponding solutions to the compressible three-dimensional Navier-Stokes and Euler equations implode (with infinite density) at a later time at a point, and we completely describe the associated formation of singularity. This paper is concerned with existence of smooth self-similar profiles for the barotropic Euler equations in dimension $d\ge 2$ with decaying density at spatial infinity. The phase portrait of the nonlinear ODE governing the equation for spherically symmetric self-similar solutions has been introduced in the pioneering work of Guderley. It allows us to construct global profiles of the self-similar problem, which however turn out to be generically non-smooth across the associated acoustic cone. In a suitable range of barotropic laws and for a sequence of quantized speeds accumulating to a critical value, we prove the existence of non-generic $\mathcal{C}^\infty$ self-similar solutions with suitable decay at infinity. The $\mathcal{C}^\infty$ regularity is used in a fundamental way in our companion paper (part II) in the analysis of the associated linearized operator and leads, in turn, to the construction of finite energy blow up solutions of the compressible Euler and Navier-Stokes equations in dimensions $d=2,3$.

In this paper, which continues our investigation of strong singularity formation in compressible fluids, we consider the compressible three-dimensional Navier-Stokes and Euler equations. In a suitable regime of barotropic laws, we construct a set of finite energy smooth initial data for which the corresponding solutions to both equations implode (with infinite density) at a later time at a point, and completely describe the associated formation of singularity. An essential step in the proof is the existence of $\mathcal{C}^\infty$ smooth self-similar solutions to the compressible Euler equations for quantized values of the speed constructed in our companion paper (part I). All blow up dynamics obtained for the Navier-Stokes problem are of type II (non self-similar).