We prove that a nodal quartic threefold $X$ containing no planes is $Q$-factorial provided that it has not more than 12 singular points, with the exception of a quartic with exactly 12 singularities containing a quadric surface. We give some geometrical constructions related to the latter quartic.
We define and calculate the weighted multiplicities of non Gorenstein terminal singularities on threefolds and some quotient singularities. We improve freeness conditions on threefolds.
We prove the $\mathbb{Q}$-factoriality of a nodal hypersurface in $\mathbb{P}^{4}$ of degree $n$ with at most ${\frac{(n-1)^{2}}{4}}$ nodes and the $\mathbb{Q}$-factoriality of a double cover of $\mathbb{P}^{3}$ branched over a nodal surface of degree $2r$ with at most ${\frac{(2r-1)r}{3}}$ nodes.
The $\mathbb{Q}$-factoriality of a nodal quartic 3-fold implies its non-rationality. We prove that a nodal quartic 3-fold with at most 8 nodes is $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial, and we show that a nodal quartic 3-fold with 9 nodes is not $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial if and only if it contains a plane. However, there are non-rational non-$\mathbb{Q}$-factorial nodal quartic 3-folds in $\mathbb{P}^4$. In particular, we prove the non-rationality of a general non-$\mathbb{Q}$-factorial nodal quartic 3-fold that contains either a plane or a smooth del Pezzo surface of degree 4.
The paper explores the birational geometry of terminal quartic 3-folds. In doing this I develop a new approach to study maximal singularities with positive dimensional centers. This allows to determine the pliability of a Q-factorial quartic with ordinary double points, and it shows the importance of Q-factoriality in the context of birational geometry of uniruled 3-folds
For every smooth quartic threefold, we classify all pencils on it whose general element is an irreducible surface birational to a smooth surface of Kodaira dimension zero.
The affine cancellation problem, which asks whether complex affine varieties with isomorphic cylinders are themselves isomorphic, has a positive solution for two dimensional varieties whose coordinate rings are unique factorization domains, in particular for the affine plane, but counterexamples are found within normal surfaces Danielewski surfaces and factorial threefolds of logarithmic Kodaira dimension equal to 1. The latter are therefore remote from the affine three-space, the first unknown case where the base of one cylinder is an affine space. Locally trivial Ga-actions play a significan…
The quartic hypersurfaces in P^4 invariant under the standard representation of S_6 form a linear pencil. We prove that a general member of this pencil is not rational.
The automorphism groups of certain factorial complex affine threefolds admitting locally trivial actions of the additive group are determined. As a consequence new counterexamples to a generalized cancellation problem are obtained.
We study Nash valuations and essential valuations of terminal threefolds of type $cA/r$. If $r=1$ or the given threefold is $\mathbb Q$-factorial, then all the Nash valuations and essential valuations can be completely described. We construct non-Gorenstein or non-$\mathbb Q$-factorial counter examples for the Nash problem.
We give a bound on the minimal number of singularities of a nodal projective complete intersection threefold which contains a smooth complete intersection surface that is not a Cartier divisor.
We prove that the quartic threefolds defined by $$ \sum_{i=0}^{5}x_i=\sum_{i=0}^{5}x_i^4-t\left(\sum_{i=0}^{5}x_i^2\right)^2=0 $$ in $\mathbb{P}^5$ are rational for $t=\frac{1}{6}$ and $t=\frac{7}{10}$.
Let $X$ be a hypersurface in $\mathbb{P}^{4}$ of degree $d$ that has at most isolated ordinary double points. We prove that $X$ is factorial in the case when $X$ has at most $(d-1)^{2}-1$ singular points.
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.
We study threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We begin by showing that any family of such K3 surfaces is completely determined by a map from the base of the family to the moduli space of mirror quartic K3 surfaces. This is then used to give a complete explicit description of all Calabi-Yau threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We conclude by studying the properties of such Calabi-Yau threefolds, including their Hodge numbers and deformation theory.
Let $X\subset \mathbb{P}^4$ be a terminal factorial quartic $3$-fold. If $X$ is non-singular, $X$ is \emph{birationally rigid}, i.e. the classical MMP on any terminal $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial projective variety $Z$ birational to $X$ always terminates with $X$. This no longer holds when $X$ is singular, but very few examples of non-rigid factorial quartics are known. In this article, we first bound the local analytic type of singularities that may occur on a terminal factorial quartic hypersurface $X\subset \mathbb{P}^4$. A singular point on such a hypersurface is either of type $cA_n$ ($n\geq 1$…
We prove the factoriality of the following nodal threefolds: a complete intersection of hypersurfaces $F$ and $G\subset\mathbb{P}^{5}$ of degree $n$ and $k$ respectively, where $G$ is smooth, $|\mathrm{Sing}(F\cap G)|\leqslant(n+k-2)(n-1)/5$, $n\geqslant k$; a double cover of a smooth hypersurface $F\subset\mathbb{P}^{4}$ of degree $n$ branched over a surface that is cut out on $F$ by a hypersurface $G$ of degree $2r\geqslant n$, and $|\mathrm{Sing}(F\cap G)|\leqslant(2r+n-2)r/4$.
We construct two small resolutions of singularities of the Coble fourfold (the double cover of the four-dimensional projective space branched over the Igusa quartic). We use them to show that all $S_6$-invariant three-dimensional quartics are birational to conic bundles over the quintic del Pezzo surface with the discriminant curves from the Wiman-Edge pencil. As an application, we check that $S_6$-invariant three-dimensional quartics are unirational, obtain new proofs of rationality of four special quartics among them and irrationality of the others, and describe their Weil divisor class grou…
This paper studies the birational geometry of terminal Gorenstein Fano 3-folds. If Y is not Q-factorial, in most cases, it is possible to describe explicitly the divisor class group Cl Y by running a Minimal Model Program (MMP) on X, a small Q-factorialisation of Y. In this case, Weil non-Cartier divisors are generated by "topological traces " of K-negative extremal contractions on X. One can show, as an application of these methods, that a number of families of non-factorial terminal Gorenstein Fano 3-folds are rational. In particular, I give some examples of rational quartic hypersurfaces wi…
In this paper we classify nodal rational non-$\mathbb{Q}$-factorial del Pezzo threefolds of degree 2 which can be $G$-birationally rigid for some subgroup $G\subset \operatorname{Aut}(X)$.
It is well-known that a nonsingular minimal cubic surface is birationally rigid; the group of its birational selfmaps is generated by biregular selfmaps and birational involutions such that all relations between the latter are implied by standard relations between reflections on an elliptic curve. It is also known that a factorial nodal quartic threefold is birationally rigid and its group of birational selfmaps is generated by biregular ones and certain birational involutions. We prove that all relations between these involutions are implied by standard relations on elliptic curves, complete …
We study local, global and local-to-global properties of threefolds with certain singularities. We prove criteria for these threefolds to be rational homology manifolds and conditions for threefolds to satisfy rational Poincaré duality. We relate the topological Euler characteristic of elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds with $\mathbb Q$-factorial terminal singularities to dimensions of Lie algebras and certain representations, Milnor and Tyurina numbers and other birational invariants of an elliptic fibration. We give an interpretation in terms of complex deformations. We state a conjecture on the…
We study the mixed Hodge structure on the third homology group of a threefold which is the double cover of projective three-space ramified over a quartic surface with a double conic. We deal with the Torelli problem for such threefolds.
We classify the non-toric, $\mathbb Q$-factorial, Gorenstein, log terminal Fano threefolds of Picard number one that admit an effective action of a two-dimensional algebraic torus.
In this paper, we prove a Clifford type inequality for the curve $X_{2,2,2,4}$, which is the intersection of a quartic and three general quadratics in $\mathbb{P}^5$. We thus prove a stronger Bogomolov-Gieseker inequality for characters of stable vector bundles and stable objects on $X_{2,4}$. Applying the scheme proposed by Bayer, Bertram, Macrì, Stellari and Toda, we can construct an open subset of Bridgeland stability conditions on $X_{2,4}$.
In this paper we study ACM vector bundles $\E$ of rank $k \geq 3$ on hypersurfaces $X_r \subset\Pj^4$ of degree $r \geq 1$. We consider here mainly the case of degree $r = 4$, which is the first unknown case in literature. Under some natural conditions for the bundle $\E$ we derive a list of possible Chern classes $(c_1,c_2,c_3)$ which may arise in the cases of rank $k=3$ and $k=4$, when $r=4$. For some cases among these we give the corresponding examples, the existence of all the other cases remaining under question.
We prove birational rigidity and calculate the group of birational automorphisms of a nodal Q-factorial double cover $X$ of a smooth three-dimensional quadric branched over a quartic section. We also prove that $X$ is Q-factorial provided that it has at most 11 singularities; moreover, we give an example of a non-Q-factorial variety of this type with 12 simple double singularities.
We study two rational Fano threefolds with an action of the icosahedral group $\mathfrak{A}_5$. The first one is the famous Burkhardt quartic threefold, and the second one is the double cover of the projective space branched in the Barth sextic surface. We prove that both of them are $\mathfrak{A}_5$-Fano varieties that are $\mathfrak{A}_5$-birationally superrigid. This gives two new embeddings of the group $\mathfrak{A}_5$ into the space Cremona group.
We show the validity of the relative dlt MMP over Q-factorial threefolds in all characteristics p>0. As a corollary, we generalise many recent results to low characteristics including: $W\mathcal{O}$-rationality of klt singularities, inversion of adjunction, and normality of divisorial centres up to a universal homeomorphism.
For a projective variety $Z$ and for any integer $p$, define the $p$-th Néron-Severi group $NS_p(Z)$ of $Z$ as the image of the cycle map $A_{p}(Z)\to H_{2p}(Z; \mathbb{C})$. Now let $X\subset \Ps^{2m+1}$ ($m\geq 1$) be a projective variety of dimension $2m-1$, with isolated singularities, complete intersection of a smooth hypersurface of degree $k$, with a hypersurface of degree $n>max\{k, 2m+1\}$, and let $F$ be a general hypersurface of degree $n$ containing $X$. We prove that the natural map $NS_m(X)\to NS_m(F)$ is surjective, and that if $dim NS_m(F)=1$ then $dim NS_m(X)=1$. In particular…
We study twists of the Burkhardt quartic threefold over non-algebraically closed base fields of characteristic different from 2,3,5. We show they all admit quartic models in projective four-space. We identify a Galois-cohomological obstruction that measures if a given twist is birational to a moduli space of abelian varieties. This obstruction has implications for the rational points on these varieties. As a result, we see that all possible 3-level structures can be realized by abelian surfaces, whereas Kummer 3-level structures that group-theoretically may be admissible, may not be realizable…
Over a field $k$, we study rational UFDs of finite transcendence degree $n$ over $k$. We classify such UFDs $B$ when $n=2$, $k$ is algebraically closed, and $B$ admits a positive $\mathbb{Z}$-grading, showing in particular that $B$ is affine over $k$. We also consider the Russell cubic threefold over $\mathbb{C}$, and the Asanuma threefolds over a field of positive characterstic, showing that these threefolds admit no elliptic $\mathbb{G}_m$-action. Finally, we show that, if $X$ is an affine $k$-variety and $X\times\mathbb{A}^m_k\cong_k\mathbb{A}^{n+m}_k$, then $X\cong_k\mathbb{A}^n_k$ if and …
We prove that the general quartic double solid with $k\leq 7$ nodes does not admit a Chow theoretic decomposition of the diagonal, or equivalently has a nontrivial universal ${\rm CH}_0$ group. The same holds if we replace in this statement "Chow theoretic" by "cohomological". In particular, it is not stably rational. We also prove that the general quartic double solid with seven nodes does not admit a universal codimension 2 cycle parameterized by its intermediate Jacobian, and even does not admit a parametrization with rationally connected fibres of its Jacobian by a family of 1-cycles. This…
We prove that up to birational equivalence, there exists only a finite number of families of Calabi-Yau threefolds (i.e. a threefold with trivial canonical class and factorial terminal singularities) which have an elliptic fibration to a rational surface. This strengthens a result of B. Hunt that there are only a finite number of possible Euler characteristics for such threefolds.
We consider the Noether-Lefschetz problem for surfaces in Q-factorial normal 3-folds with rational singularities. We show the existence of components of the Noether-Lefschetz locus of maximal codimension, and that there are indeed infinitely many of them. Moreover, we show that their union is dense in the natural topology.
Let $Z$ be the quotient of the Siegel modular threefold $\mathcal{A}^{\rm sa}(2,4,8)$ which has been studied by van Geemen and Nygaard. They gave an implication that some 6-tuple $F_Z$ of theta constants which is in turn known to be a Klingen type Eisenstein series of weight 3 should be related to a holomorphic differential $(2,0)$-form on $Z$. The variety $Z$ is birationally equivalent to the tangent cone of Fermat quartic surface in the title. In this paper we first compute the L-function of two smooth resolutions of $Z$. One of these, denoted by $W$, is a kind of Igusa compactification such…
We prove the boundedness theorem for Fano threefolds with log-terminal singularities of any fixed index. This is an improvement of our earlier result, where we required additionally that the variety is Q-factorial, with Picard number 1. The new ideas of the paper include the following. 1. Using Alexeev Minimal Model program with suitable boundary to find horizontal extremal contractions. 2. Using Kollár's effective Base Point Freeness theorem. 3. Using Kawamata's result on the length of extremal curves with suitable boundary to avoid gluing curves in some cases.