Groups acting freely on Calabi-Yau threefolds embedded in a product of del Pezzo surfaces (Q1951047)

The authors construct Calabi-Yau manifolds of dimension three having small invariants. The idea is to start with a product of del Pezzo surfaces, that is a product \(X := S_1 \times S_2\) where \(S_i\) is a smooth projective surface such that \(-K_{S_i}\) is ample. Suppose now that there exists a smooth divisor \(Y\) in the anticanonical system \(|-K_X|\). Then \(Y\) is easily seen to be a Calabi-Yau threefold, but its invariants are rather large. Therefore the authors consider a finite subgroup \(G\) of the holomorphic automorphism group \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) such that \(G\) has only finitely many fixed points on \(X\). The \(G\)-action on \(X\) induces a \(G\)-action on the space of global sections \(H^0(X, -K_X)\) and one chooses a subspace \(W \subset H^0(X, -K_X)\) such that \(W\) is an eigenspace for every \(g \in G\). Thus every divisor \(Y \in |W|\) is invariant under the \(G\)-action on \(X\), the challenge is now to determine if there exists a \textit{smooth} divisor \(Y \in |W|\) that does not meet the fixed points of the \(G\)-action. In this case the quotient \(Y/G\) is a smooth Calabi-Yau threefold having smaller invariants. This construction generalises examples by \textit{G. Tian} and \textit{S. T. Yau} [Adv. Ser. Math. Phys. 1, 543--559 (1987; Zbl 0687.14032)] and \textit{V. Braun, P. Candelas} and \textit{R. Davies} [Fortschr. Phys. 58, No. 4--5, 467--502 (2010; Zbl 1194.14061)], we refer to the very well-written paper for a precise description of the numerous new examples.