Existence of rational curves on algebraic varieties, minimal rational tangents, and applications
Stefan Kebekus, Luis Sola Conde
备注：
added an index and fixed an issue in chapter 5; to appear in the survey volume of the priority programme "Global Methods in Complex Geometry", supported by the DFG
This survey paper discusses some of the recent progress in the study of rational curves on algebraic varieties. It was written for the survey volume of the priority programme "Global Methods in Complex Geometry", supported by the DFG.
To start, we discuss existence results for rational curves on foliated manifolds. We construct the tangent morphism, define the variety of minimal rational tangents (VMRT) and name a number of results that show that many of the geometry properies of a uniruled variety are encoded in the projective geometry of the VMRT.
The results are then applied in two different settings. For one, we discuss the geometry of chains of rational curves on uniruled varieties, show how the length of a variety can be determined from the VMRT and discuss the concrete example of the moduli space of vector bundles on a curve.
On the other hand, the existence results for rational curves can be also be used to study manifolds which are known NOT to contain rational curves. We employ this method to study deformations of morphisms. Finally, we look at families of varieties of canonically polarized manifolds over complex surfaces, and use non-existence results for rational curves on the base to relate the variation of the family with the logarithmic Kodaira dimension of the base.
We give a simple combinatorial proof of the toric version of Mori's theorem that the only $n$-dimensional smooth projective varieties with ample tangent bundle are the projective spaces $\mathbb{P}^n$.
In this paper, we establish the following version at infinity of Whitney's theorem [6, 7]: Geometric and algebraic tangent cones at infinity of complex algebraic varieties coincide. The proof of this fact is based on a geometric characterization of geometric tangent cones at infinity and using the global Łojasiewicz inequality with explicit exponents for complex algebraic varieties. We also show that tangent cones at infinity of complex algebraic varieties can be computed using Gröbner bases.
I prove a crystalline characterization of abelian varieties in characteristic $p>0$ amongst the class of varieties with trivial tangent bundle. I show using my characterization that a smooth, projective, ordinary variety with trivial tangent bundle is an abelian variety if and only if its second crystalline cohomology is torsion free. I also show that a conjecture of Ke-Zheng Li about characteristic $p>0$ varieties with trivial tangent bundles is true for surfaces. I give a new proof of a result of Li and prove a refinement of it. Based on my characterization of abelian varieties I propose mod…
This paper generalises Mori's famous theorem about "Projective manifolds with ample tangent bundles" to normal projective varieties in the following way: A normal projective variety over $\mathbb{C}$ with ample tangent sheaf is isomorphic to the complex projective space.
Recently, Kanemitsu has discovered a counterexample to the long-standing conjecture that the tangent bundle of a Fano manifold of Picard number one is (semi)stable. His counterexample is a smooth horospherical variety. There is a weaker conjecture that the tangent bundle of a Fano manifold of Picard number one is simple. We prove that this weaker conjecture is valid for smooth horospherical varieties of Picard number one. Our proof follows from the existence of an irreducible family of unbendable rational curves whose tangent vectors span the tangent spaces of the horospherical variety at gene…
We describe the stratification by tensor rank of the points belonging to the tangent developable of any Segre variety. We give algorithms to compute the rank and a decomposition of a tensor belonging to the secant variety of lines of any Segre variety. We prove Comon's conjecture on the rank of symmetric tensors for those tensors belonging to tangential varieties to Veronese varieties.
We determine the stability/instability of the tangent bundles of the Fano varieties in a certain class of two orbit varieties, which are classified by Pasquier in 2009. As a consequence, we show that some of these varieties admit unstable tangent bundles, which disproves a conjecture on stability of tangent bundles of Fano manifolds.
We study the positivity of exterior powers of the tangent sheaf on toric varieties in order to generalize results by Campana and Peternell about 3-folds with nef second exterior power of the tangent bundle. Using the theory of equivariant vector bundles and the toric MMP, we establish in the smooth case a criterion for the positivity of $Λ^m\mathcal T_X$ in terms of wall relations. As an application, we classify smooth toric varieties of arbitrary dimension $n\ge3$ with $Λ^2\mathcal T_X$ nef and those of dimension $n\ge 4$ with $Λ^3\mathcal T_X$ ample.
Following Contou-Carrere [CC], we consider the Bott-Samelson resolution of a Schubert variety as a variety of galleries in the Tits building associated to the situation. We prove that the rational smoothness of a Schubert variety can be expressed in terms of a subspace of the Zariski tangent space called, the combinatorial tangent space. For this, we use a characterization of rational smoothness of a Schubert variety introduced by Carrell and Peterson [CP].
For a hypersurface in a projective space, we consider the set of pairs of a point and a line in the projective space such that the line intersects the hypersurface at the point with a fixed multiplicity. We prove that this set of pairs forms a smooth variety for a general hypersurface.
We give a combinatorial criterion for the tangent bundle on a smooth toric variety to be stable with respect to a given polarisation in terms of the corresponding lattice polytope. Furthermore, we show that for a smooth toric surface and a smooth toric variety of Picard rank 2, there exists an ample line bundle with respect to which the tangent bundle is stable if and only if it is an iterated blow-up of projective space.
Let $X$ be a smooth projective variety defined over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic $p$ whose tangent bundle is nef. We prove that $X$ admits a smooth morphism $X \to M$ such that the fibers are Fano varieties with nef tangent bundle and $T_M$ is numerically flat. We also prove that extremal contractions exist as smooth morphisms. As an application, we prove that, if the Frobenius morphism can be lifted modulo $p^2$, then $X$ admits, up to a finite étale Galois cover, a smooth morphism onto an ordinary abelian variety whose fibers are products of projective spaces.
Let $X$ be a nonsingular complex projective toric variety. We address the question of semi-stability as well as stability for the tangent bundle $T{X}$. In particular, a complete answer is given when $X$ is a Fano toric variety of dimension four with Picard number at most two, complementing earlier work of Nakagawa. We also give an infinite set of examples of Fano toric varieties for which $TX$ is unstable; the dimensions of this collection of varieties are unbounded. Our method is based on the equivariant approach initiated by Klyachko and developed further by Perling and Kool.
We determine which tangential varieties of homogeneously embedded rational homogeneous varieties are spherical. We determine the homogeneous coordinate rings and rings of covariants of the tangential varieties of homogenously embedded compact Hermitian symmetric spaces (CHSS). We give bounds on the degrees of generators of the ideals of tangential varieties of CHSS and obtain more explicit infomation about the ideals in certain cases.
We propose a conjectural list of Fano manifolds of Picard number $1$ with pseudoeffective normalized tangent bundles, which we prove in various situations by relating it to the complete divisibility conjecture of Russo and Zak on varieties with small codegree. Furthermore, the pseudoeffective thresholds and hence the pseudoeffective cones of the projectivized tangent bundles of rational homogeneous spaces of Picard number $1$ are explicitly determined by studying the total dual VMRT and the geometry of stratified Mukai flops. As a by-product, we obtain sharp vanishing theorems on the global tw…
We give simple geometric proofs of Aprodu-Farkas-Papadima-Raicu-Weyman's theorem on syzygies of tangent developable surfaces of rational normal curves and Raicu-Sam's result on syzygies of K3 carpets. As a consequence, we obtain a quick proof of Green's conjecture for general curves of genus $g$ over an algebraically closed field $\mathbf{k}$ with $\operatorname{char}(\mathbf{k}) = 0$ or $\operatorname{char}(\mathbf{k}) \geq \lfloor (g-1)/2 \rfloor$. We also show the arithmetic normality of tangent developable surfaces of arbitrary smooth projective curves of large degree.
We consider tangent cones to Schubert subvarieties of the flag variety $G/B$, where $B$ is a Borel subgroup of a reductive complex algebraic group $G$ of type $E_6$, $E_7$ or $E_8$. We prove that if $w_1$ and $w_2$ form a good pair of involutions in the Weyl group $W$ of $G$ then the tangent cones $C_{w_1}$ and $C_{w_2}$ to the corresponding Schubert subvarieties of $G/B$ do not coincide as subschemes of the tangent space to $G/B$ at the neutral point.
Let $\mathcal D_{d,k}$ denote the discriminant variety of degree $d$ polynomials in one variable with at least one of its roots being of multiplicity $\geq k$. We prove that the tangent cones to $\mathcal D_{d,k}$ span $\mathcal D_{d,k-1}$ thus, revealing an extreme ruled nature of these varieties. The combinatorics of the web of affine tangent spaces to $\mathcal D_{d,k}$ in $\mathcal D_{d,k-1}$ is directly linked to the root multiplicities of the relevant polynomials. In fact, solving a polynomial equation $P(z) = 0$ turns out to be equivalent to finding hyperplanes through a given point $P(…
Let $X\subset \mathbb{P}^r$ be an integral and non-degenerate variety. Let $σ_{a,b}(X)\subseteq \mathbb{P}^r$, $(a,b)\in \mathbb{N}^2$, be the join of $a$ copies of $X$ and $b$ copies of the tangential variety of $X$. Using the classical Alexander-Hirschowitz theorem (case $b=0$) and a recent paper by H. Abo and N. Vannieuwenhoven (case $a=0$) we compute $\dim σ_{a,b}(X)$ in many cases when $X$ is the $d$-Veronese embedding of $\mathbb{P}^n$. This is related to certain additive decompositions of homogeneous polynomials. We give a general theorem proving that $\dim σ_{0,b}(X)$ is the expected o…
Beauville asked if a compact Kähler manifold with split tangent bundle has a universal covering that is a product of manifolds. We use Mori theory and elementary results about holomorphic foliations to study this problem for projective uniruled varieties. In particular we obtain an affirmative answer for rationally connected varieties in any dimension and uniruled varieties in dimension 4.
We characterize Kaehler manifolds with trivial logarithmic tangent bundle (with respect to a divisor D) as a class of certain compatifications of complex semi-tori.
We prove a stronger version of a criterion of rationality given by Ionescu and Russo. We use this stronger version to define an invariant for rational varieties (we call it rationality degree), and we classify rational varieties for small values of the invariant.
We give an introduction to the theory of varieties of minimal rational tangents, emphasizing its aspect as a fusion of algebraic geometry and differential geometry, more specifically, a fusion of Mori geometry of minimal rational curves and Cartan geometry of cone structures.
Let $ϕ: X \to \mathbb P^n$ be a double cover branched along a smooth hypersurface of degree $2m, 2 \leq m \leq n-1$. We study the varieties of minimal rational tangents $\mathcal C_x \subset \mathbb P T_x(X)$ at a general point $x$ of $X$. We describe the homogeneous ideal of $\mathcal C_x$ and show that the projective isomorphism type of $\mathcal C_x$ varies in a maximal way as $x$ varies over general points of $X$. Our description of the ideal of $\mathbb C_x$ implies a certain rigidity property of the covering morphism $ϕ$. As an application of this rigidity, we show that any finite morphi…
For a very general product $A$ of seven or more elliptic curves, every rational curve on the Kummer variety of $A$ projects trivially onto the Kummer variety of at least one of its factors. As a consequence, a very general member of certain families of abelian varieties parametrized by connected Shimura varieties of unitary type has the property that its Kummer variety has no rational curves.
We investigate basic properties of uniformly rational varieties, i.e. those smooth varieties for which every point has a Zariski open neighborhood isomorphic to an open subset of A^n. It is an open question of Gromov whether all smooth rational varieties are uniformly rational. We discuss some potential criteria that might allow one to show that they form a proper subclass in the class of all smooth rational varieties. Finally we prove that small algebraic resolutions and big resolutions of nodal cubic threefolds are uniformly rational.
We give a classification of embedded smooth projective varieties swept out by rational homogeneous varieties whose Picard number and codimension are one.
The purpose of this paper is to translate positivity properties of the tangent bundle (and the anti-canonical bundle) of an algebraic manifold into existence and movability properties of rational curves and to investigate the impact on the global geometry of the manifold $X$. Among the results we prove are these: \quad If $X$ is a projective manifold, and ${\cal E} \subset T_X$ is an ample locally free sheaf with $n-2\ge rk {\cal E}\ge n$, then $X \simeq \EP_n$. \quad Let $X$ be a projective manifold. If $X$ is rationally connected, then there exists a free $T_X$-ample family of (rational) cur…
We give upper and lower bounds for the number of rational points on Prym varieties over finite fields. Moreover, we determine the exact maximum and minimum number of rational points on Prym varieties of dimension 2.
In this article we give the definitions of log Fano varieties and log Calabi-Yau varieties in the framework of theory of log schemes of Fontain-Illusie-Kato and give congruences of the cardinalities of rational points of them over the log points of finite fields.
Let $G$ be a complex reductive group, $T$ be a maximal torus of $G$, $B$ be a Borel subgroup of $G$ containing $T$, $W$ be the Weyl group of $G$ with respect to $T$. To each element $w$ of $W$ one can associate the Schubert subvariety $X_w$ of the flag variety $G/B$, the tangent cone to $X_w$ at the identity point $p$ considered as a subcheme of the tangent space $T_p(G/B)$, and the reduced tangent cone to $X_w$ at $p$ considered as a subvariety of $T_p(G/B)$. Let $w_1$, $w_2$ be distinct involutions in $W$. We prove that if $G$ is of type $B_n$ or $C_n$, then the tangent cones corresponding t…
We study the geometry of projective manifolds whose tangent bundles are nef on sufficiently general curves (i.e. the tangent bundle is generically nef) and show that manifolds whose anticanonical bundles are semi-ample have this property. Furthermore we introduce a notion of sufficient nefness and investigate the relation with manifolds whose anticanonical bundles are nef.
The aim of these notes is to give a introduction to the ideas and techniques of handling rational curves on varieties. The main emphasis is on varieties with many rational curves which are the higher dimensional analogs of rational curves and surfaces. The first six sections closely follow the lectures of J. Kollár given at the summer school ``Higher dimensional varieties and rational points''. The notes were written up by C. Araujo and substantially edited later. Revised version with 2 new sections.
We give an explicit description of the divisor class groups of rational trinomial varieties. As an application, we relate the iteration of Cox rings of any rational variety with torus action of complexity one to that of a Du Val surface.
Complex projective algebraic varieties with $\mathbb{C}^*$-actions can be thought of as geometric counterparts of birational transformations. In this paper we describe geometrically the birational transformations associated to rational homogeneous varieties endowed with a $\mathbb{C}^*$-action with no proper isotropy subgroups.
We give an explicit parametrization of the Hilbert schemes of rational curves C in P^n having a given splitting type of the restricted tangent bundle from P^n to C. The adopted technique uses the description of such curves as projections of a rational normal curve from a suitable linear vertex and a classification of those vertices that correspond to the required splitting type of the restricted tangent bundle. This classification involves the study of a suitable PGL(2) action on the relevant Grassmannian variety.
This note proves the existence of universal rational parametrizations. The description involves homogeneous coordinates on a toric variety coming from a lattice polytope. We first describe how smooth toric varieties lead to universal rational parametrizations of certain projective varieties. We give numerous examples and then discuss what happens in the singular case. We also describe rational maps to smooth toric varieties.
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.
We study for rationally connected varieties $X$ the group of degree 2 integral homology classes on $X$ modulo those which are algebraic. We show that the Tate conjecture for divisor classes on surfaces defined over finite fields implies that this group is trivial for any rationally connected variety.
In this paper we show that if two central simple $k$-algebras generate the same cyclic subgroup in $\mathrm{Br}(k)$, then there are rational maps between varieties associated to these algebras, such as Brauer--Severi varieties, norm hypersurfaces and symmetric powers. In some cases we even have rational embeddings. We also relate the obtained results to the Amitsur conjecture.
In this paper, using a generalization of the notion of Prym variety for covers of quasi-projective varieties, we prove a structure theorem for the Mordell-Weil group of the abelian varieties over function fields that are twists of Abelian varieties by Galois covers of irreducible quasi-projective varieties. In particular, the resutls we obtain contribute in the construction of Jacobians (of covers of the projective line) of high rank.
