Smooth rational affine varieties with infinitely many real forms (Q2121383)

A \textit{real form} of a complex algebraic variety \( V\) is an equivalence class of an anti-holomorphic involution \( \sigma:\mathbb{C}V\rightarrow \mathbb{C}V\) on the set of its complex points by the natural equivalence relation induced by automorphisms of the variety. The variety \( V \) identified with \(\mathbb{C}V\) is the \textit{complexification} of the real algebraic variety \( (V,\sigma)\). A classical problem in real algebraic geometry is the classification of real forms of a given complex algebraic variety. The first example of a complex projective variety with infinitely many non-isomorphic real forms was obtained by \textit{J. Lesieutre} [Invent. Math. 212, No. 1, 189--211 (2018; Zbl 1393.14012)] in dimension \(d\geq 6 \). It was then generalised by \textit{T.-C. Dinh} and \textit{K. Oguiso} [Duke Math. J. 168, No. 6, 941--966 (2019; Zbl 1427.14085)] to any dimension \(d\geq 2 \) for varieties of Kodaira dimension \( d - 2 \), and by \textit{T.-C. Dinh} et al. [``Projective rational manifolds with non-finitely generated discrete automorphism group and infinitely many real forms'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2002.04737}] to any \(d\geq 3 \) for projective rational varieties. The question of existence of affine rational algebraic varieties with infinitely many real forms was open. The first main result of the paper under review fills this gap for smooth real rational affine fourfolds. For a real algebraic variety \( (V,\sigma)\), the set \(\mathbb{C}V\) viewed as a real set with the Euclidean topology is the fix-point set of the anti-holomorphic involution \( \Delta\circ(\sigma\times\sigma) \), where \( \Delta: \mathbb{C}V\times\mathbb{C}V\rightarrow\mathbb{C}V\times\mathbb{C}V\) is the reflection in diagonal. This construction is functorial in \( (V,\sigma)\). The authors apply it to the complex line bundles \(\mathcal{O}_{\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^1}(n)\rightarrow\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^1, n\geq 0\), over \(\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^1\simeq S^2\), which are pairwise non-homeomorphic since, for a given \( n \), the self-intersection of the zero section of the bundle is \( n \). In the paper, it is proved that the complexifications \(E_n\rightarrow\mathbb{S}^2\) of the bundles are all isomorphic to the trivial bundle \(\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{C}^2\rightarrow\mathbb{S}^2\) where \( \mathbb{S}^2\subset \mathbb{C}^3\) is the complexification of \( S^2 \). Thus the authors obtain Theorem 1. The smooth rational affine fourfold \( \mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{C}^2 \) has at least countably infinitely many pairwise non-isomorphic real forms. Let \( X \) be a real rational affine variety of dimension \( m \) and of log-general type (i.e., smooth real rational affine variety whose complexification has logarithmic Kodaira dimension equal to \( m \)). E.g., let \( X \) be the complement in \( \mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^n \) of a smooth real hypersurface of degree \( r > m+1 \) if \( m>1 \), and the complement of three general real points in \( \mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^1\) if \( m=1 \). Taking the product of \( E_n \) with \( X \) allows the authors to derive the following result: Theorem 2. For every \( d\geq4 \), there exist smooth rational affine varieties of dimension \( d \) which have at least countably infinitely many pairwise non-isomorphic real forms. After the reviewed paper has appeared, \textit{T.-C. Dinh} et al. [``Smooth complex projective rational surfaces with infinitely many real forms'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2106.05687}] described projective rational surfaces with infinitely many real forms, and \textit{A. Bot} [``A smooth complex rational affine surface with uncountably many real forms'', Preprint, \url{arXiv: 2105.08044}] constructed a smooth affine rational surface with the same property.