It is proved that the degree of a morphism from a smooth projective n-fold with Picard number one to a smooth n-quadric is bounded (provided, of course, that n is at least three). Actually it has been proved some years ago, but I have never written down the proof, until J.-M. Hwang suggested, recently, that I do.
We compute decomposition of Frobenius push-forwards of line bundles on quadrics into a direct sum of line bundles and spinor bundles. As an application we show when the Frobenius push-forward gives a tilting bundle and we apply it to study D-modules on quadrics.
Let $f : X \rightarrow B$ be a proper flat dominant morphism between two smooth quasi-projective complex varieties $X$ and $B$. Assume that there exists an integer $l$ such that all closed fibres $X_b$ of $f$ satisfy $CH_j(X_b) = \Q$ for all $j \leq l$. Then we prove an analogue of the projective bundle formula for $CH_i(X)$ for $i \leq l$. When $B$ is a surface, $X$ is projective and $l = \lfloor \frac{\dim X - 3}{2} \rfloor$, this makes it possible to construct a Chow-Künneth decomposition for $X$ that satisfies Murre's conjectures. For instance we prove Murre's conjectures for complex smoot…
We study linear series on curves inducing injective morphisms to projective space, using zero-dimensional schemes and cohomological vanishings. Albeit projections of curves and their singularities are of central importance in algebraic geometry, basic problems still remain unsolved. In this note, we study cuspidal projections of space curves lying on irreducible quadrics (in arbitrary characteristic).
We prove analogues of several well-known results concerning rational morphisms between quadrics for the class of so-called quasilinear $p$-hypersurfaces. These hypersurfaces are nowhere smooth over the base field, so many of the geometric methods which have been successfully applied to the study of projective homogeneous varieties over fields cannot be used. We are therefore forced to take an alternative approach, which is partly facilitated by the appearance of several non-traditional features in the study of these objects from an algebraic perspective. Our main results were previously known …
We introduce a compact moduli of noncommutative quadrics, and show that it is the weighted projective space of weight (2,4,4,6). We also introduce a compact moduli of potentials for the conifold quiver, and show that it is the weighted projective space of weight (1,2,3,4). There is a natural morphism from the latter to the former, which is finite of degree 4.
We prove that the degree of a nonconstant morphism from a smooth projective 3-fold $X$ with Néron-Severi group ${\bf Z}$ to a smooth 3-dimensional quadric is bounded in terms of numerical invariants of $X$. In the special case where $X$ is a 3-dimensional cubic we show that there are no such morphisms. The main tool in the proof is Miyaoka's bound on the number of double points of a surface.
Given two vector bundles E and F on a variety X and a morphism from Sym^2(E) to F, we compute the cohomology class of the locus in X where the kernel of this morphism contains a quadric of prescribed rank. Our formulas have many applications to moduli theory: (i) we find a simple proof of Borcherds' result that the Hodge class on the moduli space of polarized K3 surfaces of fixed genus is of Noether-Lefschetz type, (ii) we construct an explicit canonical divisor on the Hurwitz space parametrizing degree k covers of the projective line from curves of genus 2k-1, (iii) we provide a closed formul…
This article provides, over any field, infinitely many algebraic embeddings of the affine spaces $\mathbb{A}^1$ and $\mathbb{A}^2$ into smooth quadrics of dimension two and three respectively, which are pairwise non-equivalent under automorphisms of the smooth quadric. Our main tools are the study of the birational morphism $\mathrm{SL}_2 \to \mathbb{A}^3$ and the fibration $\mathrm{SL}_2 \to \mathbb{A}^3 \to \mathbb{A}^1$ obtained by projections, as well as degenerations of variables of polynomial rings, and families of $\mathbb{A}^1$-fibrations.
Let $f : X -> B$ be a projective surjective morphism between quasi-projective varieties. The goal of this paper is the study of the Chow groups of $X$ in terms of the Chow groups of $B$ and of the fibers of $f$. One of the applications concerns quadric bundles. When $X$ and $B$ are smooth projective and when $f$ is a flat quadric fibration, we show that the motive of $X$ is "built" from the motives of varieties of dimension less than the dimension of $B$.
Special birational transformations $Φ:\p^r\da Z$ defined by quadric hypersurfaces are studied by means of the variety of lines $\mathcal L_z\subset\p^{r-1}$ passing through a general point $z\in Z$. Classification results are obtained when $Z$ is either a Grassmannian of lines, or the 10-dimensional spinor variety, or the $E_6$-variety. In the particular case of quadro-quadric transformations, we extend the well-known classification of Ein and Shepherd-Barron coming from Zak's classification of Severi varieties to a wider class of prime Fano manifolds $Z$. Combining both results, we get a clas…
To any homogeneous polynomial $h$ we naturally associate a variety $Ω_h$ which maps birationally onto the graph $Γ_h$ of the gradient map $\nabla h$ and which agrees with the space of complete quadrics when $h$ is the determinant of the generic symmetric matrix. We give a sufficient criterion for $Ω_h$ being smooth which applies for example when $h$ is an elementary symmetric polynomial. In this case $Ω_h$ is a smooth toric variety associated to a certain generalized permutohedron. We also give examples when $Ω_h$ is not smooth.
A classical result in complex geometry says that the automorphism group of a manifold of general type is discrete. It is more generally true that there are only finitely many surjective morphisms between two fixed projective manifolds of general type. Rigidity of surjective morphisms, and the failure of a morphism to be rigid have been studied by a number of authors in the past. The main result of this paper states that surjective morphisms are always rigid, unless there is a clear geometric reason for it. More precisely, we can say the following. First, deformations of surjective morphisms be…
We prove that every smooth subelliptic variety admits a surjective morphism from an affine space. This result gives partial answers to the questions of Arzhantsev and Forstnerič. As an application, we characterize open images of morphisms between affine spaces. We also obtain the jet interpolation theorem for morphisms from zero-dimensional subschemes of affine varieties to smooth subelliptic varieties.
In this paper, we classify projective toric birational morphisms from Gorenstein toric 3-folds onto the 3-dimensional affine space with relatively ample anti-canonical divisors.
We consider the class of quasiprojective varieties admitting a dominant morphism onto a curve with negative Euler characteristic. The existence of such a morphism is a property of the fundamental group. We show that for a variety in this class the number of maps onto a hyperbolic curve or surfaces can be estimated in terms of the numerical invariants of the fundamental group. We use this estimates to find the number of biholomorphic automorphisms of complements to some arrangements of lines.
We show that deformations of a surjective morphism onto a Fano manifold of Picard number 1 are unobstructed and rigid modulo the automorphisms of the target, if the variety of minimal rational tangents of the Fano manifold is non-linear or finite. The condition on the variety of minimal rational tangents holds for practically all known examples of Fano manifolds of Picard number 1, except the projective space. When the variety of minimal rational tangents is non-linear, the proof is based on an earlier result of N. Mok and the author on the birationality of the tangent map. When the varieties …
A birational map from a projective space onto a not too much singular projective variety with a single irreducible non-singular base locus scheme (special birational transformation) is a rare enough phenomenon to allow meaningful and concise classification results. We shall concentrate on transformations defined by quadratic equations onto some varieties (especially projective hypersurfaces of small degree), where quite surprisingly the base loci are interesting projective manifolds appearing in other contexts; for example, exceptions for adjunction theory, small degree or small codimensional …
In \cite{K-rig}, a map $β:\mathcal R\to\mathcal{B}el$ from the set $\mathcal R$ of equivalence classes of rigid germs of finite morphisms branched in germs of curves having $ADE$ singularity types onto the set $\mathcal{B}el$ of rational Belyi pairs $f:\mathbb P^1\to\mathbb P^1$ considered up to the action of $PGL(2,\mathbb C)$ was defined. In this article, the inverse images of this map are investigated in terms of monodromies of Belyi pairs.
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.
In this paper, we show that if $X$ is a smooth variety of general type of dimension $m \geq 3$ for which the canonical map induces a triple cover onto $Y$, where $Y$ is a projective bundle over $\mathbf P^1$ or onto a projective space or onto a quadric hypersurface, embedded by a complete linear series, then the general deformation of the canonical morphism of $X$ is again canonical and induces a triple cover. The extremal case when $Y$ is embedded as a variety of minimal degree is of interest, due to its appearance in numerous situations. This is especially interesting as well, since it has n…
Chisini's conjecture asserts that for a cuspidal curve $B\subset \mathbb P^2$ a generic morphism $f$ of a smooth projective surface onto $\mathbb P^2$ of degree $\geq 5$, branched along $B$, is unique up to isomorphism. We prove that if $°f$ is greater than the value of some function depending on the degree, genus, and number of cusps of $B$, then the Chisini conjecture holds for $B$. This inequality holds for many different generic morphisms. In particular, it holds for a generic morphism given by a linear subsystem of the $m$th canonical class for almost all surfaces with ample canonical cla…
Let $(X,L)$ be a quasi-polarized canonical Calabi-Yau threefold. In this note, we show that $\vert mL\vert$ is basepoint free for $m\geq 4$. Moreover, if the morphism $Φ_{\vert 4L\vert}$ is not birational onto its image and $h^0(X,L)\geq 2$, then $L^3=1$. As an application, if $Y$ is a $n$-dimensional Fano manifold such that $-K_Y=(n-3)H$ for some ample divisor $H$, then $\vert mH\vert$ is basepoint free for $m\geq 4$ and if the morphism $Φ_{\vert 4H\vert}$ is not birational onto its image, then $Y$ is either a weighted hypersurface of degree $10$ in the weighted projective space $\mathbb{P}(1…
Over a field of positive characteristic, a semisimple algebraic group $G$ may have some nonreduced parabolic subgroup $P$. In this paper, we study the Schubert and Bott-Samelson-Demazure-Hansen (BSDH) varieties of $G/P$, with $P$ nonreduced, when the base field is perfect. It is shown that in general the Schubert and BSDH varieties of such a $G/P$ are not normal, and the projection of the BSDH variety onto the Schubert variety has nonreduced fibers at closed points. When the base field is finite, the generalized convolution morphisms between BSDH varieties are also studied. It is shown that th…
We study the birationality (onto its image) of the Abel-Prym morphism associated with a Prym-Tuyrin variety. We use such result to prove that Picard bundles over Prym varieties are simple and moreover they are stable when the Abel-Prym morphism is not birational. As a consequence we obtain that Picard bundles over moduli spaces of stable vector bundles with fixed determinant are simple. We prove that Picard bundles over moduli spaces of rank 2 vector bundles on curves of genus 2 bundles are stable.
Let $(X,B)$ be a projective log canonical pair such that $B$ is a $\Q$-divisor, and that there is a surjective morphism $f\colon X\to Z$ onto a normal variety $Z$ satisfying: $K_X+B\sim_\Q f^*M$ for some $\Q$-divisor $M$, and the augmented base locus ${\bf{B_+}}(M)$ does not contain the image of any log canonical centre of $(X,B)$. We will show that $(X,B)$ has a good log minimal model. An interesting special case is when $f$ is the identity morphism.
In this article we give a sufficient condition for a morphism $φ$ from a smooth variety $X$ to projective space, finite onto a smooth image, to be deformed to an embedding. This result puts some theorems on deformation of morphisms of curves and surfaces such as $K3$ and general type, obtained by ad hoc methods, in a new, more conceptual light. One of the main interests of our result is to apply it to the construction of smooth varieties in projective space with given invariants. We illustrate this by using our result to construct canonically embedded surfaces with $c_1^2=3p_g-7$ and derive so…
Let $(X,B)$ be a complex projective klt pair, and let $f\colon X\to Z$ be a surjective morphism onto a normal projective variety with maximal albanese dimension such that $K_X+B$ is relatively big over $Z$. We show that such pairs have good log minimal models.
We investigate the tree gonality of a genus-$g$ metric graph, defined as the minimum degree of a tropical morphism from any tropical modification of the metric graph to a metric tree. We give a combinatorial constructive proof that this number is at most $\lceil g/2 \rceil + 1$, a fact whose proofs so far required an algebro-geometric detour via special divisors on curves. For even genus, the tropical morphism which realizes the bound belongs to a family of tropical morphisms that is pure of dimension $3g-3$ and that has a generically finite-to-one map onto the moduli space of genus-$g$ metric…
This paper presents new examples of projective surfaces of general type over $\mathbb{C}$ with canonical map of degree $ 3 $ onto a surface of general type. Very few examples are known of such surfaces and some of the examples in this paper present the new feature of having the canonical map not a morphism (i.e. the canonical linear system with base points).
In this article we present a unified way to smooth certain multiple structures called ropes on smooth varieties. We prove that most ropes of arbitrary multiplicity, supported on smooth curves can be smoothed. By a rope being smoothable we mean that the rope is the flat limit of a family of smooth, irreducible curves. To construct a smoothing, we connect, on the one hand, deformations of a finite morphism to projective space and, on the other hand, morphisms from a rope to projective space. We also prove a general result of independent interest, namely, finite covers onto smooth irreducible cur…
Our object of study is a rational map Psi from projective s-1 space to projective n-1 space defined by homogeneous forms g1,...,gn, of the same degree d, in the homogeneous coordinate ring R=k[x1,...,xs] of projective s-1 space. Our goal is to relate properties of Psi, of the homogeneous coordinate ring A=k[g1,...,gn] of the variety parametrized by Psi, and of the Rees algebra R[It], the bihomogeneous coordinate ring of the graph of Psi. For a regular map Psi, for instance, we prove that R[It] satisfies Serre's condition R_i, for some positive i, if and only if A satisfies R_{i-1} and Psi is b…
So far only a few families of smooth irregular surfaces are known to exist in P^4 up to pullbacks by suitable finite morphisms from P^4 onto P^4 itself. In this paper we present two different constructions of irregular smooth minimal elliptic surfaces of degree 12 in P^4. The first is a monad construction while the other uses liaison. The family constructed via liaison includes the surfaces of the first family as a special case.
In this paper we study finite morphisms between irreducible projective varieties in terms of the morphisms they induce between the respective analytifications. The background for the principal result is as follows. Let $V'$ and $V$ be irreducible, projective varieties over an algebraically closed, non- archimedean valued field $k$ and $ϕ$ be a finite morphism $ϕ: V' \to V$. Let $x \in V^{an}(L)$, where $L/k$ is an algebraically closed complete non-archimedean valued field extension. We associate canonically to $x$ an $L$-point of the space $(V \times_k L)^{an}$ which lies on the fiber over $x$…
In this article we study pluriregular varieties X of general type with base-point-free canonical bundle whose canonical morphism has degree 3 and maps X onto a variety of minimal degree Y. We carry out our study from two different perspectives. First we study in Section 2 the canonical ring of X describing completely the degrees of its minimal generators. We apply this to the study of the projective normality of the images of the pluricanonical morphisms of X. Our study of the canonical ring of $X$ also shows that, if the dimension of X is greater than or equal to 3, there does not exist a con…
An isotrivially fibred surface is a smooth projective surface endowed with a morphism onto a curve such that all the smooth fibres are isomorphic to each other. The first goal of this paper is to classify the isotrivially fibred surfaces with $p_g=q=2$ completing and extending a result of Zucconi. As an important byproduct, we provide new examples of minimal surfaces of general type with $p_g=q=2$ and $K^2=4,5$ and a first example with $K^2=6$.
Let $\Cal E$ be a very ample vector bundle of rank two on a smooth complex projective threefold $X$. An inequality about the third Segre class of $\Cal E$ is provided when $K_X+\det \Cal E$ is nef but not big, and when a suitable positive multiple of $K_X+\det \Cal E$ defines a morphism $X\to B$ with connected fibers onto a smooth projective curve $B$, where $K_X$ is the canonical bundle of $X$. As an application, the case where the genus of $B$ is positive and $\Cal E$ has a global section whose zero locus is a smooth hyperelliptic curve of genus $\geq 2$ is investigated, and our previous res…
In this article, we study the moduli of irregular surfaces of general type with at worst canonical singularities satisfying $K_X^2 = 4p_g(X)-8$, for any even integer $p_g\geq 4$. These surfaces also have unbounded irregularity $q$. We carry out our study by investigating the deformations of the canonical morphism $φ:X\to \mathbb{P}^N$, where $φ$ is Galois of degree 4. These canonical covers are classified in by the first two authors into four distinct families. We show that any deformation of $φ$ factors through a double cover of a ruled surface and, hence, is never birational. More interestin…
Let $Y_{1},\dots,Y_{l}$ be smooth irreducible projective curves and let $Y$ be its disjoint union. Given a semisimple reductive algebraic group $G$ and a faithful representation $ρ:G\hookrightarrow \textrm{SL}(V)$ we construct a projective moduli space of $(\underlineκ,δ)$-(semi)stable singular principal $G$-bundles with generalized parabolic structure of type $\underline{e}$. In case $Y$ is the normalization of a connected and reducible projective nodal curve $X$, there is a closed subscheme coarsely representing the subfunctor corresponding to descending bundles. We prove that the descent op…
Let X be a complex Fano manifold of arbitrary dimension, and D a prime divisor in X. We consider the image H of N_1(D) in N_1(X) under the natural push-forward of 1-cycles. We show that the codimension c of H in N_1(X) is at most 8. Moreover if c>2, then either X=SxY where S is a Del Pezzo surface, or c=3 and X has a flat fibration in Del Pezzo surfaces onto a Fano manifold Y, such that the difference of the Picard numbers of X and Y is 4. We give applications to Fano 4-folds, to Fano varieties with pseudo-index >1, and to surjective morphisms whose source is Fano, having some high-dimensional…