A Lagrangian sphere which is not a vanishing cycle (Q2290960)

The author constructs examples of Lagrangian spheres on Calabi-Yau threefolds which do not arise from vanishing cycles of nodal degenerations. The examples lie on rigid Calabi-Yau threefolds which were first constructed and studied by Schoen, namely, the (small resolution of a) fiber product over the projective line of two rational elliptic surfaces. More precisely, the initial surfaces are two copies of a pencil of cubics in the plane. After showing that these threefolds are rigid, the paper exhibits an essential Lagrangian sphere (actually two) and shows that it is not the vanishing cycle of a nodal degeneration by controlling the image of the monodromy. This construction exhibits a counterexample to a question of \textit{S. K. Donaldson} [in: Mathematics: frontiers and perspectives. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS). 55--64 (2000; Zbl 0958.57027)] on the nature of vanishing spheres.