A new proof of the non-rationality of a generic cubic threefold is given as follows: If a generic cubic threefold were rational then the associated intermediate Jacobian would be a product of Jacobians of curves. We degenerate a generic cubic threefold to the Segre Cubic Threefold and so there is a degeneration of intermediate Jacobians as well. Associated to the degenerating family of Pryms is a unimodular system of vectors. Rationality of the generic cubic threefold would imply that the unimodular system would be cographic dicing. However, we show that the unimodular system obtained is a well known symmetric non-cographic dicing called E_5.
In this paper, we classify groups which faithfully act on smooth cubic threefolds. It turns out that there are exactly $6$ maximal ones and we describe them with explicit examples of target cubic threefolds.
We show that every morphism from a degree 5 hypersurface in 4-dimensional projective space to a nonsingular degree 3 hypersurface in 4-dimensional projective space is necessarily constant. In the process, we also classify morphisms from the projective plane to nonsingular cubic threefolds given by degree 3 polynomials.
We prove a categorical version of the Torelli theorem for cubic threefolds. More precisely, we show that the non-trivial part of a semi-orthogonal decomposition of the derived category of a cubic threefold characterizes its isomorphism class.
We pose some questions about spaces parametrizing rational curves on rationally connected varieties. We give a partial answer for cubic threefolds. Many of our results were previously proved by Iliev, Markushevich and Tikhimirov by analyzing vector bundles on cubic threefolds. Our proofs use residuation rather than vector bundles.
The present paper deals with lines contained in a smooth complex cubic threefold. It is well-known that the set of lines of the second type on a cubic threefold is a curve on its Fano surface. Here we give a description of the singularities of this curve.
We describe the Hilbert schemes parametrizing curves on a cubic threefold of degree at most 5. In a forthcoming paper, we use this description to give a new proof and extension of a theorem of Iliev, Markushevich and Tikhimirov.
We discuss the work of Corrado Segre on nodal cubic hypersurfaces with emphasis on the cases of 6-nodal and 10-nodal cubics. In particular, we discuss the Fano surface of lines and conic bundle structures on such threefolds. We review some of the current research in algebraic geometry related to Segre's work.
It is unknown whether smooth cubic threefolds have an (integral Chow-theoretic) decomposition of the diagonal, or whether they are stably rational or not in general. As a first step towards making progress on these questions, we compute the (saturated numerical) prelog Chow group of the self-product of a certain degeneration of cubic threefolds.
We show that the Makar-Limanov invariant of the cylinder over the Koras-Russell cubic affine threefold is trivial. This means that regular functions which are invariant under all algebraic actions of the additive group on this variety are constants.
We give an algorithm to compute the zeta function of the Fano surface of lines of a smooth cubic threefold $F$ into $\mathbb{P}^4$ defined over a finite field. We obtain some examples of Fano surfaces with supersingular reduction.
Let $X$ be a smooth cubic threefold and $J(X)$ be its intermediate Jacobian. We show that there exists a codimension 2 cycle $Z$ on $J(X)\times X$ with $Z_{t}$ homologically trivial for each $t\in J(X)$, such that the morphism $ϕ_{Z}: J(X)\rightarrow J(X)$ induced by the Abel-Jacobi map is the identity. This answers positively a question of Voisin in the case of the cubic threefold.
We study the Picard variety of the Fano surface of nodal and mildly cuspidal cubic threefolds in arbitrary characteristic by relating divisors on the Fano surface to divisors on the symmetric product of a curve of genus 4.
Given a cubic hypersurface $X\subset \mathbb{P}^4$, we study the existence of Pfaffian representations of $X$, namely of $6\times 6$ skew-symmetric matrices of linear forms $M$ such that $X$ is defined by the equation $Pf(M)=0$. It was known that such a matrix always exists whenever $X$ is smooth. Here we prove that the same holds whenever $X$ is singular, hence that every cubic threefold is Pfaffian.
Results due to Druel and Beauville show that the blowup of the intermediate Jacobian of a smooth cubic threefold X in the Fano surface of lines can be identified with a moduli space of semistable sheaves of Chern classes c_1=0, c_2=2, c_3=0 on X. Here we further identify this space with a space of matrix factorizations. This has the advantage that this description naturally generalizes to singular and even reducible cubic threefolds. In this way, given a degeneration of X to a reducible cubic threefold X_0, we obtain an associated degeneration of the above moduli spaces of semistable sheaves.
A Fano surface of a smooth cubic threefold X in P^4 parametrizes the lines on X. In this note, we prove that a Fano surface satisfies the Tate conjecture over a field of finite type over the prime field and characteristic not 2.
The Abel-Jacobi maps of the families of elliptic quintics and rational quartics lying on a smooth cubic threefold are studied. It is proved that their generic fiber is the 5-dimensional projective space for quintics, and a smooth 3-dimensional variety birational to the cubic itself for quartics. The paper is a continuation of the recent work of Markushevich-Tikhomirov, who showed that the first Abel-Jacobi map factors through the moduli component of stable rank 2 vector bundles on the cubic threefold with Chern numbers $c_1=0, c_2=2$ obtained by Serre's construction from elliptic quintics, and…
It has long been known that to a complex cubic surface or threefold one can canonically associate a principally polarized abelian variety. We give a construction which works for cubics over an arithmetic base. This answers, away from the prime 2, an old question of Deligne and a recent question of Kudla and Rapoport. We further classify the Mumford-Tate groups of the abelian varieties which arise, and give additional arithmetic applications.
We show that there exists a cubic threefold defined by an invertible polynomial that, when quotiented by the maximal diagonal symmetry group, has a derived category which does not have a full exceptional collection consisting of line bundles. This provides a counterexample to a conjecture of Lekili and Ueda.
We study certain moduli spaces of stable vector bundles of rank two on cubic and quartic threefolds. In many cases under consideration, it turns out that the moduli space is complete and irreducible and a general member has vanishing intermediate cohomology. In one case, all except one component of the moduli space has such vector bundles.
A well known result of Clemens and Griffiths says that a smooth cubic threefold can be recovered from its intermediate Jacobian. In this paper we discuss the possible degenerations of these abelian varieties, and thus give a description of the compactification of the moduli space of cubic threefolds obtained in this way. The relation between this compactification and those constructed in the work of Allcock-Carlson-Toledo and Looijenga-Swierstra is also considered, and is similar in spirit to the relation between the various compactifications of the moduli spaces of low genus curves.
We prove that the Klein cubic threefold $F$ is the only smooth cubic threefold which has an automorphism of order 11. We compute the period lattice of the intermediate Jacobian of $F$ and study its Fano surface $S$. We compute also the set of fibrations of $S$ onto a curve of positive genus and the intersection between the fibres of these fibrations. These fibres generate an index 2 sub-group of the Néron-Severi group and we obtain a set of generators of this group. The Néron-Severi group of $S$ has rank $25=h^{1,1}$ and discriminant $11^{10}$.
Let X be a smooth cubic threefold. We can associate two objects to X: the intermediate Jacobian J and the Fano surface F parametrising lines on X. By a theorem of Clemens and Griffiths, the Fano surface can be embedded in the intermediate Jacobian and the cohomology class of its image is minimal. In this paper we show that if X is generic, the Fano surface is the only surface of minimal class in J.
The intermediate Jacobian map, which associates to a smooth cubic threefold its intermediate Jacobian, does not extend to the GIT compactification of the space of cubic threefolds, not even as a map to the Satake compactification of the moduli space of principally polarized abelian fivefolds. A much better "wonderful" compactification of the space of cubic threefolds was constructed by the first and fourth authors --- it has a modular interpretation, and divisorial normal crossing boundary. We prove that the intermediate Jacobian map extends to a morphism from the wonderful compactification to…
We characterise smooth curves in a smooth cubic threefold whose blow-ups produce a weak-Fano threefold. These are curves $C$ of genus $g$ and degree $d$, such that (i) $2(d-5) \le g$ and $d\le 6$; (ii) $C$ does not admit a 3-secant line in the cubic threefold. Among the list of ten possible such types $(g,d)$, two were previously left as open numerical possibilities, namely $(g,d) = (0,5)$ and $(2,6)$. Using the Sarkisov link associated with a curve of type $(2,6)$, we are able to produce the first example of a pseudo-automorphism with dynamical degree greater than $1$ on a smooth threefold wi…
In this paper we give a birational model for the theta divisor of the intermediate Jacobian of a generic cubic threefold $X$. We use the standard realization of $X$ as a conic bundle and a $4-$dimensional family of plane quartics which are totally tangent to the discriminant quintic curve of such a conic bundle structure. The additional data of an even theta characteristic on the curves in the family gives us a model for the theta divisor.
We study the Fano surface S of the Fermat cubic threefold. We prove that S is a degree 81 abelian cover of the degree 5 del Pezzo surface and that the complement of the union of 12 disjoint elliptic curves on S is a ball quotient. The lattice of this ball quotient is related to the Deligne-Mostow lattice number 1.
Allcock-Carlson-Toledo defined a period map for cubic threefolds which takes values in a ball quotient of dimension 10. A theorem of Voisin implies that this is an open embedding. We determine its image and show that on the algebraic level this amounts to an identification of the algebra of SL(5,C)-invariant polynomials on the third symmetric power of the dual of the tautological representation of SL(5,C) with an explicitly described algebra of meromorphic automorphic forms on the complex 10-ball.
Let X be a smooth cubic threefold, M the moduli space of stable rank 2 vector bundles on X with trivial determinant and c_2=2 (the smallest value for which this space is non-empty). Recent results of Druel, Iliev, Markushevich and Tikhomirov lead to a precise description of M and its Maruyama compactification M': the latter is isomorphic to the intermediate Jacobian of X blown-up along the Fano surface. In this survey paper we explain these results and discuss some applications.
We construct families of birational involutions on $\mathbb{P}^3$ or a smooth cubic threefold which do not fit into a non-trivial elementary relation of Sarkisov links. As a consequence, we construct new homomorphisms from their group of birational transformations, effectively re-proving their non-simplicity. We also prove that these groups admit a free product structure. Finally, we produce automorphisms of these groups that are not generated by inner and field automorphisms.
We determine the Cox rings of the minimal resolutions of cubic surfaces with at most rational double points, of blow ups of the projective plane at non-general configurations of six points and of three dimensional smooth Fano varieties of Picard numbers one and two.
The Abel-Jacobi map of the family of elliptic quintics lying on a general cubic threefold is studied. It is proved that it factors through a moduli component of stable rank 2 vector bundles on the cubic threefold with Chern numbers c_1=0, c_2=2, whose general point represents a vector bundle obtained by Serre's construction from an elliptic quintic. The elliptic quintics mapped to a point of the moduli space vary in a 5-dimensional projective space inside the Hilbert scheme of curves, and the map from the moduli space to the intermediate Jacobian is étale. As auxiliary results, the irreducibil…
It is well known that every smooth cubic threefold is the zero locus of the Pfaffian of a 6 x 6 skew-symmetric matrix of linear forms in P^4. To compactify the space of such Pfaffian representations of a given cubic and to study the construction in families as well as for singular or reducible cubics, it is thus natural to consider the incidence correspondence of Pfaffian representations inside the product of the space of semistable skew-symmetric 6 x 6 matrices of linear forms in P^4 and the space of cubics. Here we describe concretely the irreducible component of this incidence correspondenc…
The Tannakian formalism allows to attach to any subvariety of an abelian variety an algebraic group in a natural way. The arising groups are closely related to moduli questions such as the Schottky problem, but their geometric interpretation is still mysterious. We show that for the theta divisor on the intermediate Jacobian of a cubic threefold, the Tannaka group is an exceptional group of type E_6. This is the first known exceptional case, and it suggests a connection with the monodromy of the Gauss map.
We first prove an isomorphism between the moduli space of smooth cubic threefolds and the moduli space of hyperkaehler fourfolds of K3^{[2]}-type with a non-symplectic automorphism of order three, whose invariant lattice has rank one and is generated by a class of square 6, both these spaces are uniformized by the same 10-dimensional arithmetic complex ball quotient. We then study the degeneration of the automorphism along the loci of nodal or chordal degenerations of the cubic threefold, showing the birationality of these loci with some moduli spaces of hyperkaehler fourfolds of K3^{[2]}-type…
(1,d)-polarized abelian surfaces in P^(d-1) with two plane cubic curve fibrations lie in two elliptic P^2-scrolls. The union of these scrolls form a reducible Calabi-Yau 3-fold. In this paper we show that this occurs when d<10 and analyse the family of such surfaces and 3-folds in detail when d=6. In particular, the reducible Calabi-Yau 3-folds deform in that case to irreducible ones with non-normal singularities.
This paper proves the following converse to a theorem of Mumford: Let $A$ be a principally polarized abelian variety of dimension five, whose theta divisor has a unique singular point, and suppose that the multiplicity of the singular point is three. Then $A$ is isomorphic as a principally polarized abelian variety to the intermediate Jacobian of a smooth cubic threefold. The method of proof is to analyze the possible singularities of the theta divisor of $A$, and eventually to show that $A$ is the Prym variety of a possibly singular plane quintic.
We study the moduli space of pairs $(X,H)$ consisting of a cubic threefold $X$ and a hyperplane $H$ in $\mathbb P^4$. The interest in this moduli comes from two sources: the study of certain weighted hypersurfaces whose middle cohomology admit Hodge structures of $K3$ type and, on the other hand, the study of the singularity $O_{16}$ (the cone over a cubic surface). In this paper, we give a Hodge theoretic construction of the moduli space of cubic pairs by relating $(X,H)$ to certain "lattice polarized" cubic fourfolds $Y$. A period map for the pairs $(X,H)$ is then defined using the periods o…
For $X$ a smooth cubic threefold we study the Plücker embedding of the Fano surface of lines $S$ of $X$. We prove that if $X$ is general then the minimal gonality of a covering family of curves of $S$ is four and that this happens for a unique family of curves. The analysis also shows that there is a unique pentagonal connecting family of curves, which leads to the fact that the connecting gonality of $S$ is five whereas the degree of irrationality, i.e.\ the minimal degree of a rational map from $S$ to $\mathbb{P}^2$, is six.
