We consider blowups at a general point of weighted projective planes and, more generally, of toric surfaces with Picard number one. We give a unifying construction of negative curves on these blowups such that all previously known families appear as boundary cases of this. The classification consists of two classes of said curves, each depending on two parameters. Every curve in these two classes is algebraically related to other curves in both classes; this allows us to find their defining equations inductively. For each curve in our classification, we consider a family of blowups in which the curve defines an extremal class in the effective cone. We give a complete classification of these blowups into Mori Dream Spaces and non-Mori Dream Spaces. Our approach greatly simplifies previous proofs, avoiding positive characteristic methods and higher cohomology.
In this paper we develop a technique for discovering (non-effective) irrational rays at the boundary of the Mori cone for linear systems on a general blowup of the plane, and give examples of such irrational rays.
We discuss the ascending chain condition for lengths of extremal rays. We prove that the lengths of extremal rays of $n$-dimensional $\mathbb Q$-factorial toric Fano varieties with Picard number one satisfy the ascending chain condition.
We prove that the lengths of extremal rays of log canonical Fano surfaces with Picard number one satisfy the ascending chain condition. This confirms the 2-dimensional case of a conjecture stated by Fujino and Ishitsuka
We show that a toric Fano contraction associated to an extremal ray whose length is greater than the dimension of its fiber is a projective space bundle.
We classify smooth Fano manifolds X with the Picard number $ρ_X \geq 3$ such that there exists an extremal ray which has a birational contraction that maps a divisor to a point.
We survey recent results on ample cones and birational contractions of holomorphic symplectic varieties of K3 type, focusing on explicit constructions and concrete examples.
We propose a general framework governing the intersection properties of extremal rays of irreducible holomorphic symplectic manifolds under the Beauville-Bogomolov form. Our main thesis is that extremal rays associated to Lagrangian projective subspaces control the behavior of the cone of curves. We explore implications of this philosophy for examples like Hilbert schemes of points on K3 surfaces and generalized Kummer varieties. We also collect evidence supporting our conjectures in specific cases.
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.
Let $X$ be a smooth complex projective variety and let $L$ be a line bundle on it. We describe the structure of the pre-polarized manifold $(X,L)$ for non integral values of the invariant $τ_L(R):=-K_X\cdotΓ/(L \cdot Γ)$, where $Γ$ is a minimal curve of an extremal ray $R:=\mathbb R_+[Γ]$ on $X$ such that $L \cdot R>0$.
The Hermitian eigenvalue problem asks for the possible eigenvalues of a sum of $n\times n$ Hermitian matrices, given the eigenvalues of the summands. The regular faces of the cones $Γ_n(s)$ controlling this problem have been characterized in terms of classical Schubert calculus by the work of several authors. We determine extremal rays of $Γ_n(s)$ (which are never regular faces) by relating them to the geometry of flag varieties: The extremal rays either arise from "modular intersection loci", or by "induction" from extremal rays of smaller groups. Explicit formulas are given for both the extr…
Let $X$ be a smooth complex projective variety and let $H \in \pic(X)$ be an ample line bundle. Assume that $X$ is covered by rational curves with degree one with respect to $H$ and with anticanonical degree greater than or equal to $(\dim X -1)/2$. We prove that there is a covering family of such curves whose numerical class spans an extremal ray in the cone of curves $\cone(X)$.
Let X be a Fano manifold of pseudoindex i_X whose Picard number is at least two and let R be an extremal ray of X with exceptional locus Exc(R). We prove an inequality which bounds the length of R in terms of i_X and of the dimension of Exc(R) and we investigate the border cases. In particular we classify Fano manifolds X of pseudoindex i_X obtained blowing up a smooth variety Y along a smooth subvariety T such that dim T < i_X.
In the present paper Mori extremal rays of a smooth projective manifold X are divided into two classes: L-supported and L-negligible (where ``L'' stands for ``Lefschetz'' since the division comes from Hard Lefschetz Theorem). Roughly speaking: L-supported rays are strongly distinguishable in topology while L-negligible rays have very mild geometry. Each L-supported ray R defines hyperplane in H^2(X,R) on which Lefschetz duality degenerates so it is a cohomology ring invariant. The hyperplane carries a multiplicity (cohomology ring invariant) which is related to the geometry of the ray R. The n…
We examine the extremal rays of the cone of dominant weights $(μ, \widehatμ)$ for groups $G\subseteq \widehat G$ for which there exists $N \gg0$ such that $$ \left(V(Nμ)\otimes V(N\widehat μ)\right)^G\ne (0). $$ We exhibit formulas for a class of rays ("type I") on any regular face of the cone. These rays are identified thanks to a generalization of Fulton's conjecture, which we prove along the way. We verify that the remaining rays ("type II") on the face are the images of extremal rays for a smaller cone under a certain map, whose formula is given. A procedure is given for finding the rays o…
The Hermitian eigenvalue problem asks for the possible eigenvalues of a sum of Hermitian matrices given the eigenvalues of the summands. This is a problem about the Lie algebra of the maximal compact subgroup of $G=\operatorname{SL}(n)$ . There is a polyhedral cone (the "eigencone") determining the possible answers to the problem. These eigencones can be defined for arbitrary semisimple groups $G$, and also control the (suitably stabilized) problem of existence of non-zero invariants in tensor products of irreducible representations of $G$. We give a description of the extremal rays of the eig…
We show that certain divisors of Brill-Noether and Gieseker-Petri type span extremal rays of the effective cone in the moduli space of stable genus one curves with $n$ ordered marked points. In particular, they are different from the infinitely many extremal rays found in \cite{ChenCoskun}.
In view of Mori theory, rational homogenous manifolds satisfy a recursive condition: every elementary contraction is a rational homogeneous fibration and the image of any elementary contraction also satisfies the same property. In this paper, we show that a smooth Fano $n$-fold with the same condition and Picard number greater than $n-6$ is either a rational homogeneous manifold or the product of $n-7$ copies of $\mathbb{P}^1$ and a Fano $7$-fold $X_0$ constructed by G. Ottaviani. We also clarify that $X_0$ has non-nef tangent bundle and in particular is not rational homogeneous.
This work is concerned with the study of the extreme rays of the convex cone of $3\times 3$ quasiconvex quadratic forms (denoted by ${\cal C}_3$). We characterize quadratic forms $f\in {\cal C}_3,$ the determinant of the acoustic tensor of which is an extremal polynomial, and conjecture/discuss about other cases. We prove that in the case when the determinant of the acoustic tensor of a form $f\in {\cal C}_3$ is an extremal polynomial other than a perfect square, then the form must itself be an extreme ray of ${\cal C}_3;$ when the determinant is a perfect square, then the form is either an ex…
We consider the cones of curves and divisors on the moduli space of stable pointed rational curves,M_n, and on the quotient by the symmetric group, Q_n, which is a moduli space of pairs. We find generators for contractible extremal rays of the cone of curves NE_1(M_n), and for the cone of divisors NE^1(Q_n). This second cone turns out to be simplicial. We give complete descriptions of NE_1(M_n) and NE_1(Q_n) for small n (< 8 in the first case, < 11 in the second). We also have results of independent interest on when curves in a divisor generate the cone of curves of the ambient variety.
Let $X$ be a smooth $n$-dimensional projective variety over an algebraically closed field $k$ such that $K_X$ is not nef. We give a characterization of non nef extremal rays of $X$ of maximal length (i.e of length $n-1$); in the case of $\ch(k) = 0$ we also characterize non nef rays of length $n-2$.
In this short note we show that the closed cone of moving curves of a smooth Fano-threefold is polyhedral. The proof relies on a famous result of Bucksom, Demailly, Paun and Peternell which says that the strongly movable cone is dual to the cone of pseudoeffective divisors. Finally, we relate the extremal rays of the cone of moving curves on a threefold with extremal rays in the cone of strongly movable curves on a birational model obtained by a Mori contraction.
Let M be a smooth complex projective variety and let L be a line bundle on it. Rays-positive manifolds, namely pairs (M,L) such that L is numerically effective and L\cdotR > 0 for all extremal rays R on M, are studied. Several illustrative examples and some applications are provided. In particular, projective varieties with crepant singularities and of small degree with respect to the codimension are classified, and the non-negativity of the sectional genus g(M,L) is proven, describing as well the pairs with g(M,L) = 0,1.
In this paper, we provide examples of Sarkisov links of type II between complex projective Fano threefolds $X$ with $ρ(X) = 1$. To show examples of these links, we study smooth weak Fano threefolds with extremal rays of type $E$. We further assume that the pluri-anticanonical morphism contracts only a finite number of curves. We numerically classify smooth weak Fano threefolds with $ρ(X) = 2$ having an extremal ray of type $E$ both before and after a flop as well as prove the existence of some of these numerical cases.
This paper deals with rational curves and birational contractions on irreducible holomorphically symplectic manifold. We survey some recent results about minimal rational curves, their deformations, extremal rays associated with these curves, and the geometry of the Kähler cone.
Let X be a projective variety with terminal singularities and let L be an ample Cartier divisor on X. We prove that if f is a birational contraction associated to an extremal ray $ R \subset \bar {NE(X)}$ such that R.(K_X+(n-2)L)<0, then f is a weighted blow-up of a smooth point. We then classify divisorial contractions associated to extremal rays R such that R.(K_X+rL)<0, where r is a non-negative rational number, and the fibres of f have dimension less or equal to r+1.
We prove the general diagram method theorem valid for the quite large class of 3-folds with Q-factorial singularities (see Basic Theorem 1.3.2 and also Theorem 2.2.6). This gives the generalization of our results about Fano 3-folds with Q-factorial terminal singularities (Preprint alg-geom/9311007). As an application, we get the following result about 3-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifolds X: Assume that the Picard number ρ(X) > 93. Then one of two cases (i) or (ii) holds: (i) there exists a small extremal ray on X; (ii) There exists a nef element h such that h^3=0 (thus, the nef cone NEF(X) and t…
We give new estimates of lengths of extremal rays of birational type for toric varieties. We can see that our new estimates are the best by constructing some examples explicitly. As applications, we discuss the nefness and pseudo-effectivity of adjoint bundles of projective toric varieties. We also treat some generalizations of Fujita's freeness and very ampleness for toric varieties.
Consider the blow-up $X$ of $\mathbb{P}^3$ at 6 points in very general position and the 15 lines through the 6 points. We construct an infinite-order pseudo-automorphism $ϕ_X$ on $X$, induced by the complete linear system of a divisor of degree 13. The effective cone of $X$ has infinitely many extremal rays and hence, $X$ is not a Mori Dream Space. The threefold $X$ has a unique anticanonical section which is a Jacobian K3 Kummer surface $S$ of Picard number 17. The restriction of $ϕ_X$ on $S$ realizes one of Keum's 192 infinite-order automorphisms of Jacobian K3 Kummer surfaces. In general, w…
In the present paper we prove that, on a hyperkähler manifold, walls of the kähler cone and extremal rays of the Mori cone are determined by all divisors satisfying certain numerical conditions.
We discuss some properties of the extremal rays of the cone of effective curves of surfaces that are obtained by blowing up the projective plane at points in very general position. The main motivation is to rectify an incorrect interpretation, in terms of the geometry of this cone, of the Segre--Harbourne--Gimigliano--Hirschowitz conjecture. Even though the arguments are based on elementary computations, the point of view leads to observe some other properties of the Mori cone, among which the fact that in the case of ten or more points the cone is not countably generated.
We show there is a symplectic conifold transition of a projective 3-fold which is not deformation equivalent to any Kaehler manifold. The key ingredient is Mori's classification of extremal rays on smooth projective 3-folds. It follows that there is a Lagrangian sphere in a projective variety which is not the vanishing cycle of any Kaehler degeneration, answering a question of Donaldson.
