The cone of curves of a K3 surface (Q1345949)

The purpose of this article is to determine all the possible structures of the cone of curves of algebraic K3 surfaces. These are described in terms of (the existence of) rational curves of nonpositive self- intersection and classified into five different types. The possible Picard numbers are also determined for each of these types. The essential statement is the following. If \(X\) is a smooth algebraic K3 surface with Picard number at least 3, then there are two possible cases for the cone of curves of \(X\). Either it is generated by curves of nonnegative self-intersection, i.e. \(X\) does not contain any curves with negative self-intersection or it is the closure of the cone generated by smooth rational curves. If the Picard number is at least 12, only the second case is possible.