Answering a question of H. Petersson, we provide a class of examples of pair of octonion algebras over a ring having isometric norms.

We verify our earlier conjecture and use it to prove that the semisimple parts of the rational Jordan-Kac-Vinberg decompositions of a rational vector all lie in a single rational orbit.

In this paper we describe six pencils of $K3$-surfaces which have large Picard number ($\rho=19,20$) and each contains precisely five special fibers: four have A-D-E singularities and one is non-reduced. In particular, we characterize these surfaces as cyclic coverings of some $K3$-surfaces described in a recent paper by Barth and the author. In many cases, using 3-divisible sets, resp., 2-divisible sets, of rational curves and lattice theory, we describe explicitly the Picard lattices.

Using weighted Delsarte surfaces, we give examples of $K3$ surfaces in positive characteristic whose formal Brauer groups have height equal to $5$, $8$ or $9$. These are among the four values of the height left open in the article of Yui \cite{Y}.

Suppose we are given a finite-dimensional vector space $V$ equipped with an $F$-rational action of a linearly algebraic group $G$, with $F$ a characteristic zero field. We conjecture the following: to each vector $v\in V(F)$ there corresponds a canonical $G(F)$-orbit of semisimple vectors of $V$. In the case of the adjoint action, this orbit is the $G(F)$-orbit of the semisimple part of $v$, so this conjecture can be considered a generalization of the Jordan decomposition. We prove some cases of the conjecture.

We determine an explicit cell decomposition of the wonderful compactification of a semi\-simple algebraic group. To do this we first identify the $B\times B$-orbits using the generalized Bruhat decomposition of a reductive monoid. From there we show how each cell is made up from $B\times B$-orbits.

We embed the moduli space $Q$ of 5 points on the projective line $S_5$-equivariantly into $\mathbb{P} (V)$, where $V$ is the 6-dimensional irreducible module of the symmetric group $S_5$. This module splits with respect to the icosahedral group $A_5$ into the two standard 3-dimensional representations. The resulting linear projections of $Q$ relate the action of $A_5$ on $Q$ to those on the regular icosahedron.

We give canonical resolutions of singularities of several cone varieties arising from invariant theory. We establish a connection between our resolutions and resolutions of singularities of closure of conjugacy classes in classical Lie algebras.