A remark on Fano 4-folds having \((3,1)\)-type extremal contractions (Q5962323)

A smooth projective variety \(X\) is called Fano if its anticanonical bundle \(-K_X\) is ample. Fano manifolds of a fixed dimension form a bounded family, and they are classified up to dimension three. It is unlikely that a complete classification could be given in higher dimension, both because their number is very large and because increasing the dimension also increases the possible types of extremal contractions these varieties may have. In dimension three there are no small contractions, and when the Picard number of the manifold is not one, the most involved case is the one corresponding to varieties that are blow-ups along curves of other Fano threefolds [\textit{S. Mori} and \textit{S. Mukai}, Manuscr. Math. 36, 147--162 (1981; Zbl 0478.14033), erratum ibid. 110, 407 (2003)]. It is therefore a natural problem trying to classify Fano manifolds \(X\) of higher dimension which are obtained as a blow-up of a smooth variety \(Y\) along a smooth center \(T\). The case \(\dim T=0\) has been settled in [\textit{L. Bonavero, F. Campana} and \textit{J. A. Wiśniewski}, C. R., Math., Acad. Sci. Paris 334, No. 6, 463--468 (2002; Zbl 1036.14020)]. The author of the present paper deals with the next case, i.e., \(\dim T=1\), assuming that the variety has another extremal ray of special type, whose associated contraction \(\varphi:X \to Z\) contracts a smooth divisor \(F\) to a curve, and the divisor \(F\) meets the exceptional locus of the blow-up. He proves that there is just one Fano fourfold as above, which is the blow-up of \(\mathbb P^4\) along an elliptic quartic curve. In previous papers [C. R., Math., Acad. Sci. Paris 340, No. 8, 581--586 (2005; Zbl 1071.14043); Manuscr. Math. 132, No. 1--2, 247--255 (2010; Zbl 1203.14044)] the author classified Fano manifolds \(X\) obtained as a blow-up of a smooth variety \(Y\) along a smooth curve \(C\) under some different assumptions.