Fano varieties with \(\mathrm{Nef}(X)=\mathrm{Psef}(X)\) and \(\rho(X)=\dim X-1\) (Q1785569)

Let \(X\) be a complex Fano variety with locally factorial canonical singularities. In [\textit{S. Druel}, Math. Res. Lett. 23, No. 3, 771--804 (2016; Zbl 1375.14138 )], it was proved that if the cone \(\text{Nef}(X)\) of nef divisors on \(X\) coincides with the cone \(\text{Psef}(X)\) of pseudo-effective ones, then the Picard number \(\rho(X) \leq \dim X\). Furthermore, any such \(X\) with \(\rho(X) = \dim X\) is either a product of \(\mathbb{P}^1\)'s or is a double cover of such product ramified along a divisor of degree \((2,\ldots,2)\). A similar type classification result is proved in the paper under review. Namely, the author assumes in addition that \(X\) is smooth in codimension \(2\) and has \(\rho(X) = \dim X - 1\), \(\text{Nef}(X) = \text{Psef}(X)\), in which case he shows that it is either a product of \(\mathbb{P}^1\)'s with \(\mathbb{P}^2\), a hypersurface in a similar product, or a finite cover of degrees \(1\), \(2\), \(4\) of the products of aforementioned varieties (see Theorems 1.2 and 1.3 in the text for precise formulations). The author studies the case \(\dim X = 3\) first. He proves that both extremal contractions on \(X\) have either \(\mathbb{P}^1\) or \(\mathbb{P}^2\) as their images (see Lemma 5.3). Then he shows by a general argument that \(X\) must be one of the aforementioned finite covers (see Propositions 6.7 and 6.9). Next the author treats the case \(\dim X = 4\). He proves that \(X\) admits a fibration onto \(\mathbb{P}^1\) (see Proposition 7.1). The idea is that otherwise any extremal contraction on \(X\) is onto \(\mathbb{P}^2\) (cf. Lemma 5.2), which implies that \(X\) is a finite cover of intersection of two hypersurfaces \(Z \subset \mathbb{P}^2 \times \mathbb{P}^2 \times \mathbb{P}^2\) of multi-degrees \((2,2,0)\) and \((0,2,2)\), respectively. Furthermore, the Mori cone of \(X\) is not simplicial (see Lemma 7.3) and \(-K_Z\) is big, which gives \(-K_Z \cdot (H_1 + H_3)^3 < 0\), a contradiction (here \(H_i\) is the hyperplane class on the \(i\)th copy of \(\mathbb{P}^2\), restricted to \(Z\), \(1 \leq i \leq 3\)). The case of arbitrary \(n\) is treated by induction and a direct study of finite morphisms from \(X\) onto the products of \(\mathbb{P}^1\)'s and \(\mathbb{P}^2\) (see Section 8).