K-stability of Fano varieties: an algebro-geometric approach (Q1983983)

This is a very nice survey of the recent progress on the study of K-stability of Fano varieties and their moduli spaces by an algebro-geometric approach. The K-stability was firstly introduced by \textit{G. Tian} [Invent. Math. 130, No. 1, 1--37 (1997; Zbl 0892.53027)] and later formulated using purely algebraic geometric terms in [\textit{S. K. Donaldson}, J. Differ. Geom. 62, No. 2, 289--349 (2002; Zbl 1074.53059)]. Moreover, it is noticed in [\textit{Y. Odaka}, Ann. Math. (2) 177, No. 2, 645--661 (2013; Zbl 1271.14067)] and [\textit{C. Li} and \textit{C. Xu}, Ann. Math. (2) 180, No. 1, 197--232 (2014; Zbl 1301.14026)] that the minimal model program is closely related to K-stability question. In particular, after a series of intertwining works (contributed by K. Fujita, C. Li and others), a valuable criterion of K-stability is established and it is then possible to study various questions on K-stable Fano varieties using purely algebraic geometry. This survey gives a very nice and readable introduction to the algebraic-geometric side of K-stability and also the recent progress on the construction of the moduli space of K-stable varieties. The book contains three parts and in the end of each part, the author gives an overview of the history of the subjects discussed in the respective part. In the first part, the author discusses algebraic geometer's gradually evolved understanding of K-stability. In the second part, the author focuses on the program of constructing K-moduli space of Fano varieties. In the last part, the author discusses how to us the new tools to get new examples of K-stable Fano varieties. The content of each part is given below more precisely. In the first part, the author discusses the notion of K-stability from the algebraic geometric side and it contains five sections. In the first section, the author introduces the notion of K-stability by using Futaki invariant of test configuration. In the second section, the author discusses the work of Odaka and Li-Xu which relate the K-stability to the minimal model program. Roughly speaking, \textit{Y. Odaka} showed in [Ann. Math. (2) 177, No. 2, 645--661 (2013; Zbl 1271.14067)] the K-stability implies that the variety has only klt singularities (Theorem 2.9) and \textit{C. Li} and \textit{C. Xu} showed in [Ann. Math. (2) 180, No. 1, 197--232 (2014; Zbl 1301.14026)] that one only need to consider a special test configuration to check the K-stability (Theorem 2.12). In the third section, the author introduces Fujita-Li's valuable criterion for K-stability. In particular, the \(\beta\)-variant, which was first defined in [\textit{K. Fujita}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 751, 309--338 (2019; Zbl 1435.14039)] and [\textit{C. Li}, Duke Math. J. 166, No. 16, 3147--3218 (2017; Zbl 1409.14008)], is introduced. In particular, the aforementioned works together with \textit{H. Blum} and \textit{C. Xu} [Ann. Math. (2) 190, No. 2, 609--656 (2019; Zbl 1427.14084)] derive a valuable criterion for K-stability of Fano varieties (Theorem 3.2). In the fourth section, the author connect degenerations of Fano varieties and valuations in a more straightforward manner by using complements. It is shown by \textit{H. Blum} et al. [``Openness of K-semistability for Fano varieties'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1907.02408}] that there is a correspondence between lc places of complements and weakly special divisorial valuations (Theorem 4.10). In the fifth section, the author discusses the Ding invariants and related stability notions. In the second part, the author discusses the construction of K-moduli space of Fano varieties and it contains three sections. In the first section, it is shown that families of K-semistable Fano varieties with a fixed dimension \(n\) and volume \(V\) are parametrised by an Artin stack of finite type. The first step towards this is to establish the boundedness and openness. The boundedness was first established by \textit{C. Jiang} [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 53, No. 5, 1235--1248 (2020; Zbl 1473.14079)] based on the work of Birkar on the solution of the BAB conjecture (Theorem 6.5). The openness was established by \textit{C. Xu} [Ann. Math. (2) 191, No. 3, 1003--1030 (2020; Zbl 1469.14033)] and Blum et al. [loc. cit.] by two different proofs (Theorem 6.8). The sepratedness is established in [\textit{C. Li} et al., J. Am. Math. Soc. 34, No. 4, 1175--1214 (2021; Zbl 1475.14062)] (Theorem 7.2). Finally, the existence of K-moduli space was proved in [\textit{J. Alper} et al., Invent. Math. 222, No. 3, 995--1032 (2020; Zbl 1465.14043)] (Theorem 7.15). In the third section, the author discusses the properness and projectivity of the K-moduli space constructed before. The works of \textit{G. Codogni} and \textit{Z. Patakfalvi} [Invent. Math. 223, No. 3, 811--894 (2021; Zbl 1462.14044)] and \textit{C. Xu} and \textit{Z. Zhuang} [Ann. Math. (2) 192, No. 3, 1005--1068 (2020; Zbl 1465.14047)] showed that the restriction of the CM-line bundle to any proper subspace of the K-moduli space is ample. The only remaining problem is to show the properness of the K-moduli space and this wa proved later by \textit{Y. Liu} et al. in [``Finite generation for valuations computing stability thresholds and applications to K-stability'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2102.09405}]. In the last part, the author discusses some explicit K-stable Fano varieties and it contains two sections. The first section is devoted to estimate the invariant \(\delta(X)\). The first result in this direction is \textit{G. Tian}'s \(\alpha\)-invariant criterion in [Invent. Math. 89, 225--246 (1987; Zbl 0599.53046)]. In particular, for birationally superrigid Fano variety, it is shown by \textit{C. Stibitz} and \textit{Z. Zhuang} [Compos. Math. 155, No. 9, 1845--1852 (2019; Zbl 1425.14035)] that \(X\) is uniformly K-stable if \(\alpha(X)\geq 1/2\) (Theorem 9.6) and this can be applied to certain Fano complete intersection of index one in projective spaces. Then, the author discusses the work of \textit{H. Ahmadinezhad} and \textit{Z. Zhuang} [``K-stability of Fano varieties via admissible flags'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2003.13788}] which introduced an induction framework to verify K-stability of Fano varieties. In particular, it is shown that any degree \(n\) smooth hypersurface \(X\) in \(\mathbb{P}^{n+1}\) is K-stable (Theorem 9.7). In the second section, the author discusses certain explicit K-moduli spaces, including the cubic threefolds [\textit{Y. Liu} and \textit{C. Xu}, Duke Math. J. 168, No. 11, 2029--2073 (2019; Zbl 1436.14085); \textit{Y. Liu}, ``K-stability of cubic fourfolds'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2007.14320}], and also the wall crossings by \textit{K. Ascher} et al. [``Wall crossing for K-moduli spaces of plane curves'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1909.04576}] (Theorem 10.6). It was very nice to read the survey and it can be a good basis for non-experts who want to know or learn something about this subject.