We prove that for any $\mathbb{Q}$-Fano variety $X$, the special $\mathbb{R}$-test configuration that minimizes the $H$-functional is unique and has a K-semistable $\mathbb{Q}$-Fano central fibre $(W, ξ)$. Moreover there is a unique K-polystable degeneration of $(W, ξ)$. As an application, we confirm the conjecture of Chen-Sun-Wang about the algebraic-uniqueness for Kähler-Ricci flow limits on Fano manifolds, which implies that the Gromov-Hausdorff limit of the flow does not depend on the choice of initial Kähler metrics. The results are achieved by studying algebraic optimal degeneration problems via new functionals of real valuations, which are analogous to the minimization problem for normalized volumes.
We prove that K-polystable degenerations of Q-Fano varieties are unique. Furthermore, we show that the moduli stack of K-stable Q-Fano varieties is separated. Together with [Jia17,BL18], the latter result yields a separated Deligne-Mumford stack parametrizing all uniformly K-stable Q-Fano varieties of fixed dimension and volume. The result also implies that the automorphism group of a K-stable Q-Fano variety is finite.
We establish an algebraic approach to prove the properness of moduli spaces of K-polystable Fano varieties and reduce the problem to a conjecture on destabilizations of K-unstable Fano varieties. Specifically, we prove that if the stability threshold of every K-unstable Fano variety is computed by a divisorial valuation, then such K-moduli spaces are proper. The argument relies on studying certain optimal destabilizing test configurations and constructing a Theta-stratification on the moduli stack of Fano varieties.
Consider a family of Fano varieties $π: X \longrightarrow B\ni o$ over a curve germ with a smooth total space $X$. Assume that the generic fiber is smooth and the special fiber $F=π^{-1}(o)$ has simple normal crossings. Then $F$ is called a semistable degeneration of Fano varieties. We show that the dual complex of $F$ is a simplex of dimension $\leq \mathrm{dim}\ F$. Simplices of any admissible dimension can be realized for any dimension of the fiber. Using this result and the Minimal Model Program in dimension $3$ we reproduce the classification of the semistable degenerations of del Pezzo s…
We prove that on Fano manifolds, the Kähler-Ricci flow produces a "most destabilising" degeneration, with respect to a new stability notion related to the H-functional. This answers questions of Chen-Sun-Wang and He. We give two applications of this result. Firstly, we give a purely algebro-geometric formula for the supremum of Perelman's μ-functional on Fano manifolds, resolving a conjecture of Tian-Zhang-Zhang-Zhu as a special case. Secondly, we use this to prove that if a Fano manifold admits a Kähler-Ricci soliton, then the Kähler-Ricci flow converges to it modulo the action of automorphis…
In the paper "Birational geometry via moduli spaces" by I. Cheltsov, L. Katzarkov, and V. Przyjalkowski a new structure connecting toric degenerations of smooth Fano threefolds by projections was introduced; using Mirror Symmetry these connections were transferred to the side of Landau--Ginzburg models. In the paper mentioned above a nice way to connect of Picard rank one Fano threefolds was found. We apply this approach to all smooth Fano threefolds, connecting their degenerations by toric basic links. In particular, we find a lot of Gorenstein toric degenerations of smooth Fano threefolds we…
For an appropriate class of Fano complete intersections in toric varieties, we prove that there is a concrete relationship between degenerations to specific toric subvarieties and expressions for Givental's Landau-Ginzburg models as Laurent polynomials. As a result, we show that Fano varieties presented as complete intersections in partial flag manifolds admit degenerations to Gorenstein toric weak Fano varieties, and their Givental Landau-Ginzburg models can be expressed as corresponding Laurent polynomials. We also use this to show that all of the Laurent polynomials obtained by Coates, Kasp…
In this paper we study the geometry of toric degeneration of a Bott-Samelson-Demazure-Hansen (BSDH) variety. We give some applications to BSDH varieties. Precisely, we classify Fano, weak Fano and log Fano BSDH varieties and their toric limits in Kac-Moody setting. We prove some vanishing theorems for the cohomology of tangent bundle (and line bundles) on BSDH varieties. We also recover the results in arXiv:1604.01998, by toric methods.
In this article we exhibit certain projective degenerations of smooth $K3$ surfaces of degree $2g-2$ in $\Bbb P^g$ (whose Picard group is generated by the hyperplane class), to a union of two rational normal scrolls, and also to a union of planes. As a consequence we prove that the general hyperplane section of such $K3$ surfaces has a corank one Gaussian map, if $g=11$ or $g\geq 13$. We also prove that the general such hyperplane section lies on a unique $K3$ surface, up to projectivities. Finally we present a new approach to the classification of prime Fano threefolds of index one, which doe…
We study the birational boundedness of special fibers of log Calabi-Yau fibrations and Fano fibrations. We show that for a locally stable family of Fano varieties or polarised log Calabi-Yau pairs over a curve, if the general fiber satisfies some natural boundedness conditions, then every irreducible component of the special fiber is birationally bounded.
We propose a refined but natural notion of toric degenerations that respect a given embedding and show that within this framework a Gorenstein Fano variety can only be degenerated to a Gorenstein Fano toric variety if it is embedded via its anticanonical embedding. This also gives a precise criterion for reflexive polytopes to appear, which might be required for applications in mirror symmetry. For the proof of this statement we will study polytopes whose polar dual is a lattice polytope. As a byproduct we generalize a connection between the number of lattice points in a rational convex polyto…
In this paper, we study the K-stability of polarized spherical varieties. After reduction, it can be treated as a variational problem of the reduced functional of the Futaki invariant on the associated moment polytope. With the convexity constraint of the problem, the minimizers are shown to satisfy the homogeneous Monge-Ampère equation (HMA). When the spherical variety has rank two, a simpler characterization can be established through properties of the HMA. As an application, we determine the strict semistability and polystable degenerations for Fano spherical varieties of rank two.
In this paper, we prove that on a Fano $\mathbf G$-manifold $(M,J)$, the Gromov-Hausdorff limit of Kähler-Ricci flow with initial metric in $2πc_1(M)$ must be a $\mathbb Q$-Fano horosymmetric variety $M_\infty$, which admits a singular Kähler-Ricci soliton. Moreover, $M_\infty$ is a limit of $\mathbb C^*$-degeneration of $M$ induced by an element in the Lie algebra of Cartan torus of $\mathbf G$. A similar result can be also proved for Kähler-Ricci flows on any Fano horosymmetric manifolds. As an application, we generalize our previous result about the type II singularity of Kähler-Ricci flows…
We investigate a potential relationship between mirror symmetry for Calabi-Yau manifolds and the mirror duality between quasi-Fano varieties and Landau-Ginzburg models. More precisely, we show that if a Calabi-Yau admits a so-called Tyurin degeneration to a union of two Fano varieties, then one should be able to construct a mirror to that Calabi-Yau by gluing together the Landau-Ginzburg models of those two Fano varieties. We provide evidence for this correspondence in a number of different settings, including Batyrev-Borisov mirror symmetry for K3 surfaces and Calabi-Yau threefolds, Dolgachev…
We study rational curves on general Fano hypersurfaces in projective space, mostly by degenerating the hypersurface along with its ambient projective space to reducible varieties. We prove results on existence of low-degree rational curves with balanced normal bundle, and reprove some results on irreducibility of spaces of rational curves of low degree.
We present some applications of the deformation theory of toric Fano varieties to K-(semi/poly)stability of Fano varieties. First, we present two examples of K-polystable toric Fano 3-fold with obstructed deformations. In one case, the K-moduli spaces and stacks are reducible near the closed point associated to the toric Fano 3-fold, while in the other they are non-reduced near the closed point associated to the toric Fano 3-fold. Second, we study K-stability of the general members of two deformation families of smooth Fano 3-folds by building degenerations to K-polystable toric Fano 3-folds.
In this paper we construct a degeneration of Bott-Samelson-Demazure-Hansen varieties to toric varieties in an algebraic family and study the geometry of the resulting toric varieties. We give a natural set of torus invariant curves that generate the Chow group of $1$-cycles of the limiting toric variety and express the ample cone of this toric variety as a sub-cone of the ample cone of the corresponding Bott-Samelson-Demazure-Hansen variety. We also give a description of Extremal and Mori rays and determine when this toric variety is Fano.
We describe a practical and effective method for reconstructing the deformation class of a Fano manifold X from a Laurent polynomial f that corresponds to X under Mirror Symmetry. We explore connections to nef partitions, the smoothing of singular toric varieties, and the construction of embeddings of one (possibly-singular) toric variety in another. In particular, we construct degenerations from Fano manifolds to singular toric varieties; in the toric complete intersection case, these degenerations were constructed previously by Doran--Harder. We use our method to find models of orbifold del …
We show that complex Fano hypersurfaces can have arbitrarily large degrees of irrationality. More precisely, if we fix a Fano index e, then the degree of irrationality of a very general complex Fano hypersurface of index e and dimension n is bounded from below by a constant times $\sqrt{n}$. To our knowledge this gives the first examples of rationally connected varieties with degrees of irrationality greater than 3. The proof follows a degeneration to characteristic p argument which Kollár used to prove nonrationality of Fano hypersurfaces. Along the way we show that in a family of varieties, …
We show that the K-moduli spaces of log Fano pairs $(\mathbb{P}^3, cS)$ where $S$ is a quartic surface interpolate between the GIT moduli space of quartic surfaces and the Baily-Borel compactification of moduli of quartic K3 surfaces as $c$ varies in the interval $(0,1)$. We completely describe the wall crossings of these K-moduli spaces. As the main application, we verify Laza-O'Grady's prediction on the Hassett-Keel-Looijenga program for quartic K3 surfaces. We also obtain the K-moduli compactification of quartic double solids, and classify all Gorenstein canonical Fano degenerations of $\ma…
We study Q-factorial terminal Fano 3-folds whose equations are modelled on those of the Segre embedding of P^2 x P^2. These lie in codimension 4 in their total anticanonical embedding and have Picard rank 2. They fit into the current state of classification in three different ways. Some families arise as unprojections of degenerations of complete intersections, where the generic unprojection is a known prime Fano 3-fold in codimension 3; these are new, and an analysis of their Gorenstein projections reveals yet other new families. Others represent the "second Tom" unprojection families already…
A congruence is a surface in the Grassmannian ${\rm Gr}(2, 4)$. In this paper, we consider the normalization of congruence of bitangents to a hypersurface in $\mathbb P^3$. We call it the Fano congruence of bitangents. We give a criterion for smoothness of the Fano congruence of bitangents and describe explicitly their degenerations in a general Lefschetz pencil in the space of hypersurfaces in $\mathbb P^3$.
The Okounkov body is a construction which, to an effective divisor D on an n-dimensional algebraic variety X, associates a convex body in the n-dimensional Euclidean space R^n. It may be seen as a generalization of the moment polytope of an ample divisor on a toric variety, and it encodes rich numerical information about the divisor D. When constructing the Okounkov body, an intermediate product is a lattice semigroup, which we will call the Okounkov semigroup. Recently it was discovered that finite generation of the Okounkov semigroup has interesting geometric implication for X regarding tori…
There is a large number of different ways of constructing Calabi-Yau manifolds, as well as related non-geometric formulations, relevant in string compactifications. Showcasing this diversity, we discuss explicit deformation families of discretely distinct Hirzebruch hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{P}^n \times \mathbb{P}^1$ and identify their toric counterparts in detail. This precise isomorphism is then used to investigate some of their special divisors of interest, and in particular the secondary deformation family of their Calabi-Yau subspaces. In particular, most of the above so called Hirzebruch…
