Let X be a projective variety which is covered by a family of rational curves of minimal degree. The classic bend-and-break argument of Mori asserts that if x and y are two general points, then there are at most finitely many curves in that family which contain both x and y. In this work we shed some light on the question as to whether two sufficiently general points actually define a unique curve.
As an immediate corollary to the results of this paper, we give a characterization of projective spaces which improves on the known generalizations of Kobayashi-Ochiai's theorem.
We study extremality properties of covering families of rational curves on projective varieties. Among others, we show that on a normal and Q-factorial projective variety of dimension at most 4, every covering and quasi-unsplit family of rational curves generates a geometric extremal ray of the Mori cone.
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.
This is a continuation of "Rational families of vector bundles on curves, I". Let C be a smooth projective curve of genus at least 2 and let M be the moduli space of rank 2, stable vector bundles on C, with fixed determinant of degree 1. For any k>0, we find all the irreducible components of the space of rational curves of degree k on M and their maximal rationally connected quotients.
This revision contains some additional corrections and references, including a reference to Zeuthen suggested by Kleiman. For possible subsequent revisions, check http://math.ucr.edu/~ziv/papers/1nodal.pdf
We introduce the notion of families of n-marked smooth rational tropical curves over smooth tropical varieties and establish a one-to-one correspondence between (equivalence classes of) these families and morphisms from smooth tropical varieties into the moduli space of n-marked abstract rational tropical curves.
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.
We show that if a family of complex varieties over a base B admits a section when restricted to a very general curve in B, then the family must contain a subfamily of rationally connected varieties dominating B. As an application, we deduce the existence of one parameter families of Enriques surfaces with no section.
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 prove that in a family of projective threefolds defined over an algebraically closed field, the locus of rational fibers is a countable union of closed subsets of the locus of separably rationally connected fibers. When the ground field has characteristic zero, this implies that the locus of rational fibers in a smooth family of projective threefolds is the union of at most countably many closed subfamilies.
We study families of rational curves on certain irreducible holomorphic symplectic varieties. In particular, we prove that any ample linear system on a projective holomorphic symplectic variety of K3[n]-type contains a uniruled divisor. As an application we provide a generalization of the Beauville-Voisin result on the Chow group of 0-cycles on such varieties.
We prove the analogue of Viehweg's hyperbolicity conjecture for Whitney equisingular families of projective varieties with Gorenstein rational singularities whose geometric generic fiber has a good minimal model. Namely, for such families with maximal variation, the base spaces are of log general type. The main new ingredient is the use of intersection complexes as Hodge modules in the construction of logarithmic Higgs sheaves by Viehweg-Zuo and Popa-Schnell. This construction suggests an equisingular stratification of the moduli space of varieties of general type, with each stratum being hype…
We give an upper bound for the degree of rational curves in a family that covers a given birational ruled surface in projective space. The upper bound is stated in terms of the degree, sectional genus and arithmetic genus of the surface. We introduce an algorithm for constructing examples where the upper bound is tight. As an application of our methods we improve an inequality on lattice polygons.
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 study invariant divisors on the total spaces of the homogeneous deformations of rational complexity-one T-varieties constructed by Ilten and Vollmert. In particular, we identify a natural subgroup of the Picard group for any general fiber of such a deformation, which is canonically isomorphic to the Picard group of the special fiber. This isomorphism preserves Euler characteristic, intersection numbers, and the canonical class.
Under suitable hypotheses, we prove that a form of a projective homogeneous variety $G/P$ defined over the function field of a surface over an algebraically closed field has a rational point. The method uses an algebro-geometric analogue of simple connectedness replacing the unit interval by the projective line. As a consequence, we complete the proof of Serre's Conjecture II in Galois cohomology for function fields over an algebraically closed field.
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.
We prove that a complete family of linearly non-degenerate rational curves of degree $e > 2$ in $\mathbb{P}^n$ has at most $n-1$ moduli. For $e = 2$ we prove that such a family has at most $n$ moduli. It is unknown whether or not this is the best possible result. The general method involves exhibiting a map from the base of a family $X$ to the Grassmaninian of $e$-planes in $\mathbb{P}^n$ and analyzing the resulting map on cohomology.
Let C be a smooth complex projective curve of genus at least 2 and let M be the moduli space of rank 2, stable vector bundles on C, with fixed determinant of degree 1. For any k>1, we find two irreducible components of the space of rational curves of degree k on M. One component, which we call the nice component has the property that the general element is a very free curve if k is sufficiently large. The other component has the general element a free curve. Both components have the expected dimension and their maximal rationally connected fibration is the Jacobian of the curve C.
Iterated Grassmannian bundles over moduli stacks of vector bundles on a curve are shown to be birational to an affine space times a moduli stack of degree 0 vector bundles, following the method of King and Schofield. Applications include the birational type of some Brill-Noether loci, of moduli schemes for vector bundles with parabolic structure or with level structure and for A. Schmitt's decorated vector bundles. A further consequence concerns the existence of Poincare families on finite coverings of the moduli schemes.
We study the set of rational curves of a certain topological type in general members of certain families of Calabi-Yau threefolds. For some families we investigate to what extent it is possible to conclude that this set is finite. For other families we investigate whether this set contains at least one point representing an isolated rational curve.
By the famous ADE classification rational double points are simple. Rational triple points are also simple. We conjecture that the simple normal surface singularities are exactly those rational singularities, whose resolution graph can be obtained from the graph of a rational double point or rational triple point by making (some) vertex weights more negative. For rational singularities we show one direction in general, and the other direction (simpleness) within the special classes of rational quadruple points and of sandwiched singularities.
First we solve the problem of finding minimal degree families on toric surfaces by reducing it to lattice geometry. Then we describe how to find minimal degree families on, more generally, rational complex projective surfaces.
Under natural hypotheses we give an upper bound on the dimension of families of singular curves with hyperelliptic normalizations on a surface S with p_g(S) >0 via the study of the associated families of rational curves in Hilb^2(S). We use this result to prove the existence of nodal curves of geometric genus 3 with hyperelliptic normalizations, on a general K3 surface, thus obtaining specific 2-dimensional families of rational curves in its Hilbert square. We describe two infinite series of examples of general, primitively polarized K3's such that their Hilbert squares contain a IP^2 or a thr…
This paper is a follow up of arXiv:1702.02255 [math.NT]. We construct explicitly versal families of elliptic curves with rational points of order 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 respectively.
Using the structure of the jet schemes of rational double point singularities, we construct "minimal embedded toric resolutions" of these singularities. We also establish, for these singularities, a correspondence between a natural class of irreducible components of the jet schemes centered at the singular locus and the set of divisors which appear on every "minimal embedded toric resolution". We prove that this correspondence is bijective except for the $E_8$ singulartiy. This can be thought as an embedded Nash correspondence for rational double point singularities.
We consider families of curve-to-curve maps that have no singularities except those of genus 0 stable maps and that satisfy a versality condition at each singularity. We provide a universal expression for the cohomology class Poincaré dual to the locus of any given singularity. Our expressions hold for any family of curve-to-curve maps satisfying the above properties.
We investigate families of minimal rational curves on Schubert varieties, their Bott-Samelson desingularizations, and their generalizations constructed by Nicolas Perrin in the minuscule case. In particular, we describe the minimal families on small resolutions of minuscule Schubert varieties.
The main purpose of this paper is twofold. We first want to analyze in details the meaningful geometric aspect of the method introduced in the previous paper [12], concerning regularity of families of irreducible, nodal "curves" on a smooth, projective threefold $X$. This analysis highlights several fascinating connections with families of other singular geometric "objects" related to $X$ and to other varieties. Then, we generalize this method to study similar problems for families of singular divisors on ruled fourfolds suitably related to $X$.
This paper deals with a study of the rational elliptic surfaces whose $J$-invariant functions are of degree one. Almost all of these elliptic surfaces have four singular fibers, while the remaining surfaces have only three singular fibers. The moduli space of these elliptic surfaces is canonically isomorphic to the projective line by taking the $J$-values for a certain fixed type of singular fibers. Over the moduli space, we discuss our elliptic surfaces, and investigate how their sections are described by the parameter of the moduli space. By using a covering space of the moduli, we construct…
We give a construction of singular curves with many rational points over finite fields. This construction enables us to prove some results on the maximum number of rational points on an absolutely irreducible projective algebraic curve defined over Fq of geometric genus g and arithmetic genus $π$.
We classify all complex surfaces with quotient singularities that do not contain any smooth rational curves, under the assumption that the canonical divisor of the surface is not pseudo-effective. As a corollary we show that if $X$ is a log del Pezzo surface such that for every closed point $p\in X$, there is a smooth curve (locally analytically) passing through $p$, then $X$ contains at least one smooth rational curve.
The work is a detailed study of rational singularities of multiplicity 3 (RTP-singularities, for short). We give a list of nonisolated hypersurface singularities of which normalisations are the RTP-singularities, and construct their minimal resolution graphs by means of a subdivision of Newton polygons of those -- a method introduced by M. Oka for isolated complete intersection singularities. We show that nonisolated forms of RTP-singularities and their normalisations are both Newton non-degenerate.
We consider the question whether one can construct an embedded resolution of singularities of a singular variety $X\subset \textbf{A}^n$ from the data of the irreducible components of the spaces of jets (of $X$) centered at the singular locus of $X.$ We show that the answer is no in general and that it is yes for some birational models of rational triple surface singularities.
It is a conjecture of Kollár that a variety $X$ with rational singularities in some open subvariety $U$ has a rationalification; that is, a proper, birational morphism $f: Y \rightarrow X$ such that $Y$ has rational singularities, and which is an isomorphism over $U$. Whether this is true is already unknown in the case of a (normal) threefold with rational singularities along a curve $C$ except at a single point $p \in C$. There is an analogous conjecture for demi-normal varieties $X$, where we must insist that $Y$ has only semi-rational singularities. Our main result is that if a stronger ver…
We consider families of Calabi-Yau n-folds containing singular fibres and study relations between the occurring singularity structure and the decomposition of the local Weil zeta-function. For 1-parameter families, this provides new insights into the combinatorial structure of the strong equivalence classes arising in the Candelas - de la Ossa - Rodrigues-Villegas approach for computing the zeta-function. This can also be extended to families with more parameters as is explored in several examples, where the singularity analysis provides correct predictions for the changes of degree in the dec…
We construct k-parameter families of rational surface automorphisms for any k. These are automorphisms of surfaces X, which are constructed from iterated blowups over the projective plane. In certain cases: we are able to determine the exact automorphism group of X, as well as when two of the surfaces X are inequivalent.
Kollár gave a series of examples of rational surfaces of Picard number $1$ with ample canonical divisor having cyclic singularities. In this paper, we construct several series of new examples in a geometric way, i.e., by blowing up several times inside a configuration of curves on the projective plane and then by contracting chains of rational curves. One series of our examples have the same singularities as Kollár's examples.
A normal projective complex surface is called a rational homology projective plane if it has the same Betti numbers with the complex projective plane $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^2$. It is known that a rational homology projective plane with quotient singularities has at most 5 singular points. So far all known examples have at most 4 singular points. In this paper, we prove that a rational homology projective plane $S$ with quotient singularities such that $K_S$ is nef has at most 4 singular points except one case. The exceptional case comes from Enriques surfaces with a configuration of 9 smooth ra…
In this paper, we prove that a pair of the minimal resolution of a del Pezzo surface with rational double points whose general anti-canonical member is smooth and its exceptional divisor lifts to the Witt ring. We also classify a del Pezzo surface with rational double points whose anti-canonical members are all singular. As a corollary, we determine all singularity types of del Pezzo surfaces with rational double points which only appear in positive characteristic.
We give restrictions on the existence of families of curves on smooth projective surfaces $S$ of nonnegative Kodaira dimension all having constant geometric genus $g \geq 2$ and hyperelliptic normalizations. In particular, we prove a Reider-like result whose proof is ``vector bundle-free'' and relies on deformation theory and bending-and-breaking of rational curves in $\Sym^2(S)$. We also give examples of families of such curves.
We prove that the morphism that maps a rational ruled surface to its singular locus is genericaly injective modulo isomophism and duality. We also calculate the dimension and the degre of its image.
We study the topological triviality and the Whitney equisingularity of a family of isolated determinantal singularities. On one hand, we give a Lê-Ramanujam type theorem for this kind of singularities by using the vanishing Euler characteristic. On the other hand, we extend the results of Teissier and Gaffney about the Whitney equisingularity of hypersurfaces and complete intersections, respectively, in terms of the constancy of the polar multiplicities.
Given an n-dimensional variety Z with rational singularities, we conjecture that for a resolution of singularities whose reduced exceptional divisor E has simple normal crossings, the (n-1)-th higher direct image of the sheaf of differential forms with log poles along E vanishes. We prove this when Z has isolated singularities and when it is a toric variety. We deduce that for a divisor D with isolated rational singularities on a smooth complex n-dimensional variety X, the generation level of Saito's Hodge filtration on the localization of the structure sheaf along D is at most n-3.
We determine and list all possible configurations of singular fibres on rational elliptic surfaces in characteristic three. In total, we find that 267 distinct configurations exist. This result complements Miranda and Persson's classification in characteristic zero, and Lang's classification in characteristic two.
It is a very old and interesting open problem to characterize those collections of embedded topological types of local plane curve singularities which may appear as singularities of a projective plane curve C of degree d. The goal of the present article is to give a complete (topological) classification of those cases when C is rational and it has a unique singularity which is locally irreducible (i.e. C is unicuspidal) with one Puiseux pair.
The weighted dual graph of a two-dimensional normal singularity $(X, x)$ represents the topological nature of the exceptional locus of its minimal log resolution. $(X, x)$ and its graph are said to be taut if the singularity can be uniquely determined by the graph. Laufer gave a complete list of taut singularities over $\mathbb{C}$. In positive characteristics, taut graphs over $\mathbb{C}$ are not necessarily taut and tautness have been studied only for special cases. In this paper, we prove the tautness of $F$-regular singularities. We also discuss the tautness of $F$-pure rational singulari…
