We prove that the dimension of the intersection $\mathcal Z$ of all Hassett divisors of special cubic fourfolds is sixteen. We do this by studying which subsets of the natural numbers $\mathbb N$ can be obtained as the image of a positive-definite integral quadratic form and what the minimal possible rank of such a form is. In particular, for the subset of $\mathbb N$ consisting of all possible discriminants of special cubic fourfolds, we show this rank is four and that this is the codimension of $\mathcal Z$ in $\mathcal C$, the twenty-dimensional moduli space of cubic fourfolds.
We prove that every Hassett's Noether-Lefschetz divisor of special cubic fourfolds contains a union of three codimension-two subvarieties, parametrizing rational cubic fourfolds, in the moduli space of smooth cubic fourfolds.
We extend non-emtpyness and irreducibility of Hassett divisors to the moduli spaces of $M$-polarizable cubic fourfolds for higher rank lattices $M$, which in turn provides a systematic approach for describing the irreducible components of intersection of Hassett divisors. We show that Fermat cubic fourfold is contained in every Hassett divisor, which yields a new proof of Hassett's existence theorem of special cubic fourfolds. We obtain an algorithm to determine the irreducible components of the intersection of any two Hassett divisors and we give new examples of rational cubic fourfolds. More…
The works of Hassett and Kuznetsov identify countably many divisors $C_d$ in the open subset of $\mathbb{P}^{55}=\mathbb{P}(H^0(\mathcal{O}_{\mathbb{P}^5}(3)))$ parametrizing all cubic 4-folds and conjecture that the cubics corresponding to these divisors are precisely the rational ones. Rationality has been known classically for the first family $C_{14}$. We use congruences of 5-secant conics to prove rationality for the first three of the families $C_d$, corresponding to $d=14, 26, 38$ in Hassett's notation.
Recent results of Hassett, Kuznetsov and others pointed out countably many divisors $C_d$ in the open subset of $\mathbb{P}^{55}=\mathbb{P}(H^0(\mathcal{O}_{\mathbb{P}^5}(3)))$ parametrizing all cubic 4-folds and lead to the conjecture that the cubics corresponding to these divisors should be precisely the rational ones. Rationality has been proved by Fano for the first divisor $C_{14}$ and in [arXiv:1707.00999] for the divisors $C_{26}$ and $C_{38}$. In this note we describe explicit birational maps from a general cubic fourfold in $C_{14}$, in $C_{26}$ and in $C_{38}$ to $\mathbb{P}^4$, prov…
There are three types of involutions on a cubic fourfold; two of anti-symplectic type, and one symplectic. Here we show that cubics with involutions exhibit the full range of behaviour in relation to rationality conjectures. Namely, we show a general cubic fourfold with symplectic involution has no associated K3 surface and is conjecturely irrational. In contrast, we show a cubic fourfold with a particular anti-symplectic involution has an associated K3, and is in fact rational. We show such a cubic is contained in the intersection of all non-empty Hassett divisors; we call such a cubic Hasset…
Generalizing a recent construction of Yang and Yu, we study to what extent one can intersect Hassett's Noether-Lefschetz divisors $\mathcal{C}_d$ in the moduli space of cubic fourfolds $\mathcal{C}$. In particular, we exhibit arithmetic conditions on 20 indexes $d_1,\dots, d_{20}$ that assure that the divisors $\mathcal{C}_{d_1},\dots,\mathcal{C}_{d_{20}}$ all intersect one another. This allows us to produce examples of rational cubic fourfolds with an associated K3 surface with rank 20 Néron-Severi group, i.e. a singular K3 surface.
In this short note, we show that there exist one dimensional families of cubic fourfolds with Chow motive of abelian type and finite dimensional inside every Hassett divisor of special cubic fourfolds. This also implies abelianity and finite dimensionality of the motive of related Hyperkähler varieties, such as the Fano variety of lines and the LLSvS 8fold.
Motivated by a conjecture of Xiao, we study supporting divisors of fibred surfaces. On the one hand, after developing a formalism to treat one-dimensional families of varieties of any dimension, we give a structure theorem for fibred surfaces supported on relatively rigid divisors. On the other hand, we study how to produce supporting divisors by constructing a global adjoint map for a fibration over a curve (generalizing the infinitesimal constructions of Collino, Pirola, Rizzi and Zucconi).
The aim of this short note is to define the \it universal cubic fourfold \rm over certain loci of their moduli space. Then, we propose two methods to prove that it is unirational over the Hassett divisors $\mathcal{C}_d$, in the range $8\leq d \leq 42$. By applying inductively this argument, we are able to show that, in the same range of values, $\mathcal{C}_{d,n}$ is unirational for all integer values of $n$. Finally, we observe that for explicit infinitely many values of $d$, the universal cubic fourfold over $\mathcal{C}_d$ can not be unirational.
We give an interim report on some improvements and generalizations of the Abbott-Kedlaya-Roe method to compute the zeta function of a nondegenerate ample hypersurface in a projectively normal toric variety over $\mathbb{F}_p$ in linear time in $p$. These are illustrated with a number of examples including K3 surfaces, Calabi-Yau threefolds, and a cubic fourfold. The latter example is a non-special cubic fourfold appearing in the Ranestad-Voisin coplanar divisor on moduli space; this verifies that the coplanar divisor is not a Noether-Lefschetz divisor in the sense of Hassett.
We provide explicit descriptions of the generic members of Hassett's divisors $\mathcal C_d$ for relevant $18\leq d\leq 38$ and for $d=44$. In doing so, we prove that $\mathcal C_d$ is unirational for $18\leq d\leq 38,d=44$. As a corollary, we prove that the moduli space $\mathcal N_{d}$ of polarized K3 surfaces of degree $d$ is unirational for $d=14,26,38$. The case $d=26$ is entirely new, while the other two cases have been previously proven by Mukai.
A special cubic fourfold is a smooth hypersurface of degree three and dimension four that contains a surface not homologous to a complete intersection. Special cubic fourfolds give rise to a countable family of Noether-Lefschetz divisors C_d in the moduli space C of smooth cubic fourfolds. These divisors are irreducible 19-dimensional varieties birational to certain orthogonal modular varieties. We use the "low-weight cusp form trick" of Gritsenko, Hulek, and Sankaran to obtain information about the Kodaira dimension of C_d. For example, if d = 6n + 2, then we show that C_d is of general type …
We give an explicit construction of a class of F-theory models with matter in the three-index symmetric (4) representation of SU(2). This matter is realized at codimension two loci in the F-theory base where the divisor carrying the gauge group is singular; the associated Weierstrass model does not have the form associated with a generic SU(2) Tate model. For 6D theories, the matter is localized at a triple point singularity of arithmetic genus g=3 in the curve supporting the SU(2) group. This is the first explicit realization of matter in F-theory in a representation corresponding to a genus …
