In this paper, we consider a natural question how many minimal rational curves are needed to join two general points on a Fano manifold X of Picard number 1. In particular, we study the minimal length of such chains in the cases where the dimension of X is at most 5, the coindex of X is at most 3 and X equips with a structure of a double cover. As an application, we give a better bound on the degree of Fano 5-folds of Picard number 1.
It was Fano who first classified Enriques-Fano threefolds. However his arguments appear to contain several gaps. In this paper, we will verify some of his assertions through the use of modern techniques.
Using ideas from the theory of tropical curves and degeneration, we prove that any Fano hypersurface (and more generally Fano complete intersections) is swept by at most quadratic rational curves.
In this paper, we investigate higher order minimal families $H_i$ of rational curves associated to Fano manifolds $X$. We prove that $H_i$ is also a Fano manifold if the Chern characters of $X$ satisfy some positivity conditions. We also provide a sufficient condition for Fano manifolds to be covered by higher rational manifolds.
We classify some special classes of non-rational Fano threefolds with terminal singularities. In particular, all such hyperelliptic and trigonal varieties are found.
For a Fano manifold of pseudo-index at least 3 and $c_1^2-2c_2$ nef, we show irreducibility of certain spaces of curves on the Fano manifold implies the manifold is a union of rational surfaces.
We determine the rationality of very general quasismooth Fano 3-fold weighted hypersurfaces completely and determine the stable rationality of them except for cubic 3-folds. More precisely we prove that (i) very general Fano 3-fold weighted hypersurfaces of index 1 or 2 are not stably rational except possibly for the cubic threefolds, (ii) among the 27 families of Fano 3-fold weighted hypersurfaces of index greater than 2, very general members of specific 7 families are not stably rational and the remaining 20 families consists of rational varieties.
In this paper, we give an affirmative answer to a conjecture in the Minimal Model Program. We prove that log $Q$-Fano varieties of dim $n$ are rationally connected. We also study the behavior of the canonical bundles under projective morphisms.
We give the first evidence for a conjecture that a general, index-one, Fano hypersurface is not unirational: (i) a general point of the hypersurface is contained in no rational surface ruled, roughly, by low-degree rational curves, and (ii) a general point is contained in no image of a Del Pezzo surface.
We study Fano manifolds $X$ admitting an unsplit dominating family of rational curves and we prove that the Generalized Mukai Conjecture holds if $X$ has pseudoindex $i_X = (\dim X)/3$ or dimension $\dim X=6$. We also show that this conjecture is true for all Fano manifolds with $i_X > (\dim X)/3$.
In this paper, we investigate the minimal length of chains of minimal rational curves needed to join two general points on a Fano manifold of Picard number 1. In particular, we give a sharp bound of the length by a fundamental argument. As an application, we compute the length for Fano manifolds of dimension < 8.
We prove that Generalized Mukai Conjecture holds for Fano manifolds $X$ of pseudoindex $i_X \ge (\dim X +3)/3$. We also give different proofs of the conjecture for Fano fourfolds and fivefolds.
Complete intersections inside rational homogeneous varieties provide interesting examples of Fano manifolds. For example, if $X = \cap_{i=1}^r D_i \subset G/P$ is a general complete intersection of $r$ ample divisors such that $K_{G/P}^* \otimes \mathcal{O}_{G/P}(-\sum_i D_i)$ is ample, then $X$ is Fano. We first classify these Fano complete intersections which are locally rigid. It turns out that most of them are hyperplane sections. We then classify general hyperplane sections which are quasi-homogeneous.
In this article we give the definitions of log Fano varieties and log Calabi-Yau varieties in the framework of theory of log schemes of Fontain-Illusie-Kato and give congruences of the cardinalities of rational points of them over the log points of finite fields.
We prove rationality criteria over algebraically non-closed fields of characteristic $0$ for five out of six types of geometrically rational Fano threefolds of Picard number $1$ and geometric Picard number bigger than $1$. For the last type of such threefolds we provide a unirationality criterion and prove stable non-rationality under additional assumptions.
It is a well-known fact that families of minimal rational curves on rational homogeneous manifolds of Picard number one are uniform, in the sense that the tangent bundle to the manifold has the same splitting type on each curve of the family. In this note we prove that certain --stronger-- uniformity conditions on a family of minimal rational curves on a Fano manifold of Picard number one allow to prove that the manifold is homogeneous.
The goal of this article is to study the equations and syzygies of embeddings of rational surfaces and certain Fano varieties. Given a rational surface X and an ample and base-point-free line bundle L on X, we give an optimal numerical criterion for L to satisfy property Np. This criterion turns out to be a characterization of property Np if X is anticanonical. We also prove syzygy results for adjunction bundles and a Reider type theorem for higher syzygies. For certain Fano varieties we also prove results on very ampleness and higher syzygies.
We show that the degrees of rational endomorphisms of very general complex Fano and Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces satisfy certain congruence conditions by specializing to characteristic p. As a corollary we show that very general n-dimensional hypersurfaces of degree $d\ge 5\lceil (n+3)/6\rceil$ are not birational to elliptic fibrations. A key part of the argument is to resolve singularities of general p-cyclic covers in mixed characteristic p.
On a general Fano hypersurface in projective space, we determine for infinitely many $k$ the minimal degree $e$ of a rational curve through a general collection of $k$ points. In the case of a hypersurface of index 1, our results hold for all $k\geq 1$. In an appendix, M.C. Chang proves an arithmetical result which implies that in the case of index $>1$, the density of the set of curve degrees $e$ covered by our method is approximately $\frac{(n-d)(d-\frac{5}{2})}{(n-2)d}$.
In this paper we address Fano manifolds X with a locally unsplit dominating family of rational curves of anticanonical degree equal to the dimension of X. We first observe that their Picard number is at most 3, and then we provide a classification of all cases with maximal Picard number. We also give examples of locally unsplit dominating families of rational curves whose varieties of minimal tangents at a general point is singular.
We study the moduli spaces of rational curves on prime Fano threefolds of index 1. For general threefolds of most genera we compute the dimension and the number of irreducible components of these moduli spaces. Our results confirm Geometric Manin's Conjecture in these examples and show the enumerativity of certain Gromov-Witten invariants.
We prove several classification results for the components of the moduli space of rational curves on a smooth Fano threefold. In particular, we prove a conjecture of Batyrev on the growth of the number of components as the degree increases. The key to our approach is Geometric Manin's Conjecture which predicts the number of components parameterizing free curves.
This is meant to be a survey article for the Cubo Journal. We discuss the existence and number of rational points over a finite field, the Hodge type over the complex numbers, and the motivic conjectures which are controlling those invariants. We present a geometric version of it.
We investigate the spaces of rational curves on a general hypersurface. In particular, we show that for a general degree $d$ hypersurface in $\mathbb{P}^n$ with $n \geq d+2$, the space $\overline{\mathcal{M}_{0,0}}(X,e)$ of degree $e$ Kontsevich stable maps from a rational curve to $X$ is an irreducible local complete intersection stack of dimension $e(n-d+1)+n-4$.
Let $X$ be a projective variety and let $C$ be a rational normal curve on $X$. We compute the normal bundle of $C$ in a general complete intersection of hypersurfaces of sufficiently large degree in $X$. As a result, we establish the separable rational connectedness of a large class of varieties, including general Fano complete intersections of hypersurfaces of degree at least three in flag varieties, in arbitrary characteristic. In addition, we give a new way of computing the normal bundle of certain rational curves in products of varieties in terms of their restricted tangent bundles and nor…
In this paper we investigate Fano manifolds $X$ whose Chern characters $ch_k(X)$ satisfy some positivity conditions. Our approach is via the study of polarized minimal families of rational curves $(H_x,L_x)$ through a general point $x\in X$. First we translate positivity properties of the Chern characters of $X$ into properties of the pair $(H_x,L_x)$. This allows us to classify polarized minimal families of rational curves associated to Fano manifolds $X$ satisfying $ch_2(X)\geq0$ and $ch_3(X)\geq0$. As a first application, we provide sufficient conditions for these manifolds to be covered by…
We provide a new construction of rationality for cubic fourfolds via Mori's theory and the minimal model program. As an application, we present the solution of the Kuznetsov's conjecture for $d=42$ (the first open case). Our methods also show an explicit connection between the rationality of cubic fourfolds belonging to the first four admissible families $\mathcal C_d$, with $d=14,26,38$, and $42$ and some birational models of minimal K3 surfaces of degree $d$ contained in well known rational Fano fourfolds.
We show that deformations of a surjective morphism onto a Fano manifold of Picard number 1 are unobstructed and rigid modulo the automorphisms of the target, if the variety of minimal rational tangents of the Fano manifold is non-linear or finite. The condition on the variety of minimal rational tangents holds for practically all known examples of Fano manifolds of Picard number 1, except the projective space. When the variety of minimal rational tangents is non-linear, the proof is based on an earlier result of N. Mok and the author on the birationality of the tangent map. When the varieties …
We study (smooth, complex) Fano 4-folds X having a rational contraction of fiber type, that is, a rational map X-->Y that factors as a sequence of flips followed by a contraction of fiber type. The existence of such a map is equivalent to the existence of a non-zero, non-big movable divisor on X. Our main result is that if Y is not P^1 or P^2, then the Picard number rho(X) of X is at most 18, with equality only if X is a product of surfaces. We also show that if a Fano 4-fold X has a dominant rational map X-->Z, regular and proper on an open subset of X, with dim(Z)=3, then either X is a produ…
We show the Kontsevich space of rational curves of degree at most roughly $\frac{2-\sqrt{2}}{2}n$ on a general hypersurface $X\subset \mathbb{P}^n$ of degree $n-1$ is equidimensional of expected dimension and has two components: one consisting generically of smooth, embedded rational curves and the other consisting of multiple covers of a line. This proves more cases of a conjecture of Coskun, Harris, and Starr and shows the Gromov-Witten invariants in these cases are enumerative.
We construct new families of smooth Fano fourfolds with Picard rank $1$ which contain open $\Bbb A^1$-cylinders, that is, Zariski open subsets of the form $Z \times \Bbb A^1$, where $Z$ is a quasiprojective variety. In particular, we show that every Mukai fourfold of genus $8$ is cylindrical and there exists a family of cylindrical Gushel-Mukai fourfolds.
We study the question whether rational homogeneous spaces are rigid under Fano deformation. In other words, given any smooth connected family f:X -> Zof Fano manifolds, if one fiber is biholomorphic to a rational homogeneous space S, whether is f an S-fibration? The cases of Picard number one were studied in a series of papers by J.-M. Hwang and N. Mok. For higher Picard number cases, we notice that the Picard number of a rational homogeneous space G/P is less or equal to the rank of G. Recently A. Weber and J. A. Wisniewski proved that rational homogeneous spaces G/P with Picard numbers equal…
In this paper we address Fano manifolds with positive higher Chern characters. They are expected to enjoy stronger versions of several of the nice properties of Fano manifolds. For instance, they should be covered by higher dimensional rational varieties, and families of higher Fano manifolds over higher dimensional bases should admit meromorphic sections (modulo the Brauer obstruction). Aiming at finding new examples of higher Fano manifolds, we investigate positivity of higher Chern characters of rational homogeneous spaces. We determine which rational homogeneous spaces of Picard rank $1$ h…
In this paper we try to further explore the linear model of the moduli of rational maps. Our attempt yields following results. Let $X\subset \mathbf P^n$ be a generic hypersurface of degree $h$. Let $R_d(X, h)$ denote the open set of the Hilbert scheme parameterizing irreducible rational curves of degree $d$ on $X$. We obtain that (1) If $4\leq h\leq n-1$, $R_d(X, h)$ is an integral, local complete intersection of dimension \begin{equation} (n+1-h)d+n-4. \end{equation} (2) If furthermore $(h^2-n)d+h\leq 0$ and $h\geq 4$, in addition to part (1), $R_d(X, h)$ is also rationally connected.
Let $X$ be an $n$-dimensional complex Fano manifolds $(n\geq 3)$. Assume that $X$ contains a divisor $A$, which is isomorphic to a rational homogeneous space with Picard number one, such that the conormal bundle $\mathscr{N}^*_{A/X}$ is ample over $A$. Building on the works of Tsukioka, Watanabe and Casagrande-Druel, we give a complete classification of such pairs $(X,A)$.
We prove the $W\mathcal{O}$-rationality of klt threefolds and the rational chain connectedness of klt Fano threefolds over a perfect field of characteristic $p>5$. As a consequence, any klt Fano threefold over a finite field has a rational point.
A Fano manifold $X$ with nef tangent bundle is of flag-type if it has the same type of elementary contractions as a complete flag manifold. In this paper we present a method to associate a Dynkin diagram $\mathcal{D}(X)$ with any such $X$, based on the numerical properties of its contractions. We then show that $\mathcal{D}(X)$ is the Dynkin diagram of a semisimple Lie group. As an application we prove that Campana-Peternell conjecture holds when $X$ is a flag-type manifold whose Dynkin diagram is $A_n$ ($X$ is shown to be the complete flag in $\mathbb{P}^n$).
The minimum of intersection numbers of the anti-canonical divisor with rational curves on a Fano manifold is called pseudo-index. It is expected that the intersection number of anti-canonical divisor attains to the minimum on an extremal ray, i.e. there exists an extremal rational curve whose intersection number with the anti-canonical divisor equals the pseudo-index. In this note, we prove this for smooth Fano 4-folds having birational contractions.
We prove in the case of minimal Fano threefolds a conjecture stated by Dubrovin at the ICM 1998 in Berlin. The conjecture predicts that the symmetrized/alternated Euler characteristic pairing on $K_0$ of a Fano variety with an exceptional collection expressed in the basis of the classes of the exceptional objects coincides with the intersection pairing of the vanishing cycles in Dubrovin's second connection. We show that the conjecture holds for $V_{22}$, a minimal Fano threefold of anticanonical degree~22, and for $V_5$, the minimal Fano threefold of anticanonical degree~40, by applying the m…
We study the birational geometry of a Fano 4-fold X from the point of view of Mori dream spaces; more precisely, we study rational contractions of X. Here a rational contraction is a rational map f: X-->Y, where Y is normal and projective, which factors as a finite sequence of flips, followed by a surjective morphism with connected fibers. Such f is called elementary if the difference of the Picard numbers of X and Y is 1. We first give a characterization of non-movable prime divisors in X, when X has Picard number at least 6; this is related to the study of birational and divisorial elementar…
In this paper, we prove a conjecture by T. Suzuki, which says if a smooth Fano manifold satisfies some positivity condition on its Chern character, then it can be covered by rational $N$-folds. We prove this conjecture by using purely combinatorial properties of Bernoulli numbers.
We consider some families of smooth Fano hypersurfaces $X_{n+2}$ in ${\bf P}^{n+2} \times {\bf P}^3$ given by a homogeneous polynomial of bidegree $(1,3)$. For these varieties we obtain lower bounds for the number of $F$-rational points of bounded anticanonical height in arbitrary nonempty Zariski open subset $U \subset X_{n+2}$. These bounds contradict previous expectations about the distribution of $F$-rational points of bounded height on Fano varieties.
We prove a structure theorem for non-isomorphic endomorphisms of weak Q-Fano threefolds, or more generally for threefolds with big anti-canonical divisor. Also provided is a criterion for a fibred rationally connected threefold to be rational. As a consequence, we show (without using the classification) that every smooth Fano threefold having a non-isomorphic surjective endomorphism is rational.
