Conical Kahler-Einstein metric revisited

In this paper we introduce the "interpolation-degneration" strategy to study Kahler-Einstein metrics on a smooth Fano manifold with cone singularities along a smooth divisor that is proportional to the anti-canonical divisor. By "interpolation" we show the angles in $(0, 2π]$ that admit a conical Kahler-Einstein metric form an interval; and by "degeneration" we figure out the boundary of the interval. As a first application, we show that there exists a Kahler-Einstein metric on P² with cone singularity along a smooth conic (degree 2) curve if and only if the angle is in $(π/2, 2π]$. When the angle is $2π/3$ this proves the existence of a Sasaki-Einstein metric on the link of a three dimensional A₂ singularity, and thus answers a problem posed by Gauntlett-Martelli-Sparks-Yau. As a second application we prove a version of Donaldson's conjecture about conical Kahler-Einstein metrics in the toric case using Song-Wang's recent existence result of toric invariant conical Kahler-Einstein metrics.