This is the second of two papers on the birational geometry of $\bar{M}_{g,1}$. We construct rational maps from $\bar{M}_{5,1}$ and $\bar{M}_{6,1}$ to lower-dimensional moduli spaces. As a consequence, we identify geometric divisors that generate extremal rays of the effective cones for these spaces.
Using deformation theory of rational curves, we prove a conjecture of Sommese on the extendability of morphisms from ample subvarieties when the morphism is a smooth (or mildly singular) fibration with rationally connected fibers. We apply this result in the context of Fano fibrations and prove a classification theorem for projective bundle and quadric fibration structures on ample subvarieties.
We consider threefold del Pezzo fibrations over a curve germ whose central fiber is non-rational. Under the additional assumption that the singularities of the total space are at worst ordinary double points, we apply a suitable base change and show that there is a 1-to-1 correpspondence between such fibrations and certain non-singular del Pezzo fibrations equipped with a cyclic group action.
We consider K3 surfaces which are double cover of rational elliptic surfaces. The former are endowed with a natural elliptic fibration, which is induced by the latter. There are also other elliptic fibrations on such K3 surfaces, which are necessarily induced by special linear systems on the rational elliptic surfaces. We describe these linear systems. In particular, we observe that every conic bundle on the rational surface induces a genus 1 fibration on the K3 surface and we classify the singular fibers of the genus 1 fibration on the K3 surface it terms of singular fibers and special curves…
In this paper we look for necessary and sufficient conditions for a genus one fibration to have rational curves. We show that a projective variety with log terminal singularities that admits a relatively minimal genus one fibration $X\rightarrow B$ does contain vertical rational curves if and only if it not isomorphic to a finite étale quotient of a product $\tilde{B}\times E$ over $B$. Many sufficient conditions for the existence of rational curves in a variety that admits a genus one fibration are proved in this paper.
The main aim of this article is to show that a very general 3-dimensional del Pezzo fibration of degree 1,2,3 is not stably rational except for a del Pezzo fibration of degree 3 belonging to explicitly described 2 families. Higher dimensional generalizations are also discussed and we prove that a very general del Pezzo fibration of degree 1,2,3 defined over the projective space is not stably rational provided that the anticanonical divisor is not ample.
We consider a rational surface with a relatively minimal fibration. Picard number of a such fibred surface is bounded in terms of the genus of a general fibre. When Picard number is the maximum for any given genus, we characterize a such fibred surface whose Mordell-Weil group is trivial by singular fibres. Furthermore, we describe the defining equation explicitly.
We study K3 surfaces over a number field $k$ which are double covers of extremal rational elliptic surfaces. We provide a list of all elliptic fibrations on certain K3 surfaces together with the degree of a field extension over which each genus one fibration is defined and admits a section. We show that the latter depends, in general, on the action of the cover involution on the fibers of the genus 1 fibration.
In this paper we complete the classification of the elliptic fibrations on K3 surfaces which admit a non-symplectic involution acting trivially on the Néron--Severi group. We use the geometric method introduced by Oguiso and moreover we provide a geometric construction of the fibrations classified. If the non-symplectic involution fixes at least one curve of genus 1, we relate all the elliptic fibrations on the K3 surface with either elliptic fibrations or generalized conic bundles on rational elliptic surfaces. This description allows us to write the Weierstrass equations of the elliptic fibr…
This paper has been withdrawn. A completely rewritten new version will be soon submitted. In order to obtain the inequality $6(g-1) \le K_f^2$ some additional conditions must be imposed on the fibration, involving the number on certain exceptional curves.
Del Pezzo fibrations appear as minimal models of rationally connected varieties. The rationality of smooth del Pezzo fibrations is a well studied question but smooth fibrations are not dense in moduli. Little is known about the rationality of the singular models. We prove birational rigidity, hence non-rationality, of del Pezzo fibrations with simple non-Gorenstein singularities satisfying the famous $K^2$-condition. We then apply this result to study embeddings of $\operatorname{PSL}_2(7)$ into the Cremona group.
We consider fibrations by affine lines on smooth affine surfaces obtained as complements of smooth rational curves $B$ in smooth projective surfaces $X$ defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. We observe that except for two exceptions, these surfaces $X \setminus B$ admit infinitely many families of $\mathbb{A}^1$-fibrations over the projective line with irreducible fibers and a unique singular fiber of arbitrarily large multiplicity. For $\mathbb{A}^1$-fibrations over the affine line, we give a new and essentially self-contained proof that the set of equivalence cla…
Polarized rational surfaces $(X, \mathcal L)$ of sectional genus two ruled in conics are studied. When they are not minimal, they are described as the blow-up of $\mathbb F_1$ at some points lying on distinct fibers. Ampleness and very ampleness of $\mathcal L$ are studied in terms of their location. When $\mathcal L$ is very ample and there is a line contained in $X$ and transverse to the fibers, the conic fibrations $(X, \mathcal L)$ are classified and a related property concerned with the inflectional locus is discussed.
By studying the theory of rational curves, we introduce a notion of rational simple connectedness for projective homogeneous spaces. As an application, we prove that over a function field of an algebraic surface, a projective homogeneous space admits a rational point if the elementary obstruction vanishes.
Given a relatively minimal fibration $f: S \to \Bbb P^1$ on a rational surface $S$ with general fiber $C$ of genus $g$, we investigate under what conditions the inequality $6(g-1)\le K_f^2$ occurs, where $K_f$ is the canonical relative sheaf of $f$. We give sufficient conditions for having such inequality, depending on the genus and gonality of $C$ and the number of certain exceptional curves on $S$. We illustrate how these results can be used for constructing fibrations with the desired property. For fibrations of genus $11\le g\le 49$ we prove the inequality: $$ 6(g-1) +4 -4\sqrt g \le K_f^2…
We study weak approximation on rationally connected varieties under an assumption of strong approximation for a "simple" variety or under Schinzel's hypothesis. We also get some unconditional results.
Let X be a smooth, complex Fano variety. For every prime divisor D in X, we set c(D):=dim ker(r:H^2(X,R)->H^2(D,R)), where r is the natural restriction map, and we define an invariant of X as c_X:=max{c(D)|D is a prime divisor in X}. In a previous paper we showed that c_X<9, and that if c_X>2, then either X is a product, or X has a flat fibration in Del Pezzo surfaces. In this paper we study the case c_X=2. We show that up to a birational modification given by a sequence of flips, X has a conic bundle structure, or an equidimensional fibration in Del Pezzo surfaces. We also show a weaker prope…
We develop technics of birational geometry to study automorphisms of affine surfaces admitting many distinct rational fibrations, with a particular focus on the interactions between automorphisms and these fibrations. In particular, we associate to each surface $S$ of this type a graph encoding equivalence classes of rational fibrations from which it is possible to decide for instance if the automorphism group of $S$ is generated by automorphisms preserving these fibrations.
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…
To classify complex rational cuspidal curves $E\subseteq \mathbb{P}^2$ it remains to classify the ones with complement of log general type, i.e. the ones for which $κ(K_X+D)=2$, where $(X,D)$ is a log resolution of $(\mathbb{P}^2,E)$. It is conjectured that $κ(K_X+\frac{1}{2}D)=-\infty$ and hence $\mathbb{P}^2\setminus E$ is $\mathbb{C}^{**}$-fibered, where $\mathbb{C}^{**}=\mathbb{C}^1\setminus\{0,1\}$, or $-(K_X+\frac{1}{2}D)$ is ample on some minimal model of $(X,\frac{1}{2}D)$. Here we classify, up to a projective equivalence, those rational cuspidal curves for which the complement is $\ma…
Let X -> Y be a fibration whose fibers are complete intersections of two quadrics. We develop new categorical and algebraic tools---a theory of relative homological projective duality and the Morita invariance of the even Clifford algebra under quadric reduction by hyperbolic splitting---to study semiorthogonal decompositions of the bounded derived category of X. Together with new results in the theory of quadratic forms, we apply these tools in the case where X -> Y has relative dimension 1, 2, or 3, in which case the fibers are curves of genus 1, Del Pezzo surfaces of degree 4, or Fano three…
Conjectures on the existence of zero-cycles on arbitrary smooth projective varieties over number fields were proposed by Colliot-Thélène, Sansuc, Kato and Saito in the 1980's. We prove that these conjectures are compatible with fibrations, for fibrations into rationally connected varieties over a curve. In particular, they hold for the total space of families of homogeneous spaces of linear groups with connected geometric stabilisers. We prove the analogous result for rational points, conditionally on a conjecture on locally split values of polynomials which a recent work of Matthiesen establi…
We consider a mixed function of type $H(z,\bar z)=f(z)\bar g(z)$ where $f,g$ are non-degenerate but they are not assumed to be convenient. We assume that $f=0$ and $g=0$ and $f=g=0$ are non-degenerate and locally tame. We will show that $H$ has a tubular Milnor fibration and a spherical Milnor fibration. We show also two fibrations are equivalent.
Let $X$ be a projective variety with log terminal singularities and vanishing augmented irregularity. In this paper we prove that if $X$ admits a relatively minimal genus one fibration then it does contain a subvariety of codimension one covered by rational curves contracted by the fibration. We then focus on the case of varieties with numerically trivial canonical bundle and we discuss several consequences of this result.
We prove some results on the fibers and images of rational maps from a hyper-Kähler manifold. We study in particular the minimal genus of fibers of a fibration into curves. The last section of this paper is devoted to the study of the rational map defined by a linear system on a hyper-Kähler fourfold satisfying numerical conditions similar to those considered by O'Grady in his study of fourfolds numerically equivalent to $K3^{[2]}$. We extend his results to this more general context.
We revisit the abstract framework underlying the fibration method for producing rational points on the total space of fibrations over the projective line. By fine-tuning its dependence on external arithmetic conjectures, we render the method unconditional when the degree of the non-split locus is $\leq 2$, as well as in various instances where it is $3$. We are also able to obtain improved results in the regime that is conditionally accessible under Schinzel's hypothesis, by incorporating into it, for the first time, a technique due to Harari for controlling the Brauer--Manin obstruction in fa…
We consider a mixed function of type $H(\mathbf z,\bar {\mathbf z})=f(\mathbf z)\bar g(\mathbf z)$ where $f$ and $g$ are convenient holomorphic functions which have isolated critical points at the origin and we assume that the intersection $f=g=0$ is a complete intersection variety with an isolated singlarity at theorigin. We assume also that $H$ satisfies the multiplicity condition.We will show that $H$ has a tubular Milnor fibration and also a spherical Milnor fibration. We give examples which does not satisfy the Newton multiplicity condition where one does not have Milnor fibration and the…
We study the problem of counting the number of varieties in families which have a rational point. We give conditions on the singular fibres that force very few of the varieties in the family to contain a rational point, in a precise quantitative sense. This generalises and unifies existing results in the literature by Serre, Browning-Dietmann, Bright-Browning-Loughran, Graber-Harris-Mazur-Starr, et al.
We consider the problem of counting the number of varieties in a family over $\mathbb{Q}$ with a rational point. We obtain lower bounds for this counting problem for some families over $\mathbb{P}^1$, even if the Hasse principle fails. We also obtain sharp results for some multinorm equations and for specialisations of certain Brauer group elements on higher dimensional projective spaces, where we answer some cases of a question of Serre. Our techniques come from arithmetic geometry and additive combinatorics.
We give a criterion to determine when the degree growth of a birational map of the complex projective plane which fixes (the action on the basis of the fibration is trivial) a rational fibration is linear up to conjugacy. We also compute the centraliser of such maps. It allows us to describe the centraliser of the birational maps of the complex projective plane which preserve a rational fibration (the action on the basis of the fibration being not necessarily trivial); this question is related to some classical problems of difference equations.
We prove that every map-germ ${f \bar g}: (\C^n,\0) {\to}(\C,0)$ with an isolated critical value at 0 has the Thom $a_{f \bar g}$-property. This extends Hironaka's theorem for holomorphic mappings to the case of map-germs $f \bar g$ and it implies that every such map-germ has a Milnor-Lê fibration defined on a Milnor tube. One thus has a locally trivial fibration $ϕ: \mathbb S_\e \setminus K \to \mathbb S^1$ for every sufficiently small sphere around $\0$, where $K$ is the link of $f \bar g$ and in a neighbourhood of $K$ the projection map $ϕ$ is given by $f \bar g / | f \bar g|$.
We prove that the moduli spaces of twisted $\mathrm{SL}_n$ and $\mathrm{PGL}_n$-Higgs bundles on a smooth projective curve have the same (stringy) class in the Grothendieck ring of rational Chow motives. On the level of Hodge numbers this was conjectured by Hausel and Thaddeus, and recently proven by Groechenig, Ziegler and the second author. To adapt their argument, which relies on p-adic integration, we use a version of motivic integration with values in rational Chow motives and the geometry of Néron models to evaluate such integrals on Hitchin fibers.
Let $Σ$ be a smooth projective surface, let $f' : S' \to Σ$ be a double cover of $Σ$ and let $μ: S \to S'$ be the canonical resolution. Put $f = f'\circμ$. An irreducible curve $C$ on $Σ$ is said to be a splitting curve with respect to $f$ if $f^*C$ is of the form $C^+ + C^- + E$, where $C^- = σ_f^*C^+$, $σ_f$ being the covering transformation of $f$ and all irreducible components of $E$ are contained in the exceptional set of $μ$. In this article, we show that a kind of "reciprocity" of splitting curves holds for a certain pair of curves on rational ruled surfaces. As an application, we consi…
We define a cone curve to be a reduced sextic space curve which lies on a quadric cone and does not go through the vertex. We classify families of bitangent planes of cone curves. The methods we apply can be used for any space curve with ADE singularities, though in this paper we concentrate on cone curves. An embedded complex projective surface which is adjoint to a degree one weak Del Pezzo surface contains families of minimal degree rational curves, which cannot be defined by the fibers of a map. Such families are called minimal non-fibration families. Families of bitangent planes of cone c…
We prove that the number of rational points of bounded height on certain del Pezzo surfaces of degree 1 defined over Q grows linearly, as predicted by Manin's conjecture. Along the way, we investigate the average number of integral points of small naive height on quadratic twists of a fixed elliptic curve with full rational 2-torsion.
A Kodaira fibration is a compact, complex surface admitting a holomorphic submersion onto a complex curve, such that the fibers have nonconstant moduli. We consider Kodaira fibrations X with nontrivial invariant rational cohomology in degree 1, proving that if the dimension of the holomorphic invariants is 1 or 2, then X admits a branch covering over a product of curves inducing an isomorphism on rational cohomology in degree 1. We also study the class of Kodaira fibrations possessing a holomorphic section, and demonstrate that having a section imposes no restriction on possible monodromies.
In this paper, we study rational sections of the relative Picard scheme of a linear system on a smooth projective variety. We prove that if the linear system is basepoint-free and the locus of non-integral divisors has codimension at least two, then all rational sections of the relative Picard scheme come from restrictions of line bundles on the variety. As a consequence, we describe the group of sections of the Hitchin fibration for moduli spaces of Higgs bundles on curves.