Calabi-Yau coverings over some singular varieties and new Calabi-Yau 3-folds with Picard number one (Q1003130)

This paper constructs new examples of Calabi-Yau threefolds with Picard number one. Such manifolds are relatively rare, and previous examples were constructed as complete intersections in projective space or as double covers of Fano threefolds with Picard number one branched along a smooth divisor cohomologous to \(K_X^{-2}\). This paper considers the case when the Fano threefold is mildly singular, namely when it is a \(\mathbb{Q}\)-Fano threefold of Gorenstein index \(2\). Such varieties have been classified by \textit{H. Takagi} [Nagoya Math. J. 167, 117--155 (2002; Zbl 1048.14022)]. Using these varieties the author constructs \(18\) new Calabi-Yau threefolds with Picard number one. He also shows that some of them belong to the same Hilbert scheme inside a projective space, and so they can be connected by a flat deformation.