The Kodaira dimension of the moduli of \(K3\) surfaces (Q2385048)

This paper is concerned with the Kodaira dimension of the moduli space of polarized \(K3\) surfaces. It is a classical result that the moduli space \(\mathcal F_{2d}\) of polarized \(K3\) surfaces of degree \(2d\) is a quasi-projective variety of dimension 19. The main result of this paper is formulated as follows. Theorem 1. Let \(\mathcal F_{2d}\) be the moduli space of \(K3\) surfaces with a polarization of degree \(2d\). Then \(\mathcal F_{2d}\) is of general type for any \(d > 61\) and for \(d = 46, 50, 54, 57, 58\) and \(60\). If \(d \geq 40\) and \(\neq 41, 44, 45\) or \(47\) then the Kodaira dimension of \(\mathcal F_{2d}\) is non-negative. The main ingredient in the proof of Theorem 1 is the following result. Theorem 2. Let \(L\) be a lattice of signature \((2, n)\) with \(n\geq 9\), and let \(\Gamma\subset O^+ (L)\) be a subgroup of finite index. Then there exists a projective toroidal compactification \(\overline{\mathcal F_L(\Gamma)}\) of \(\mathcal F_L (\Gamma) = \Gamma \setminus\mathcal D_L\) such that \(\overline{\mathcal F_L(\Gamma)}\) has canonical singularities and there are no branch divisors in the boundary. Then branch divisors in \(\mathcal F_L (\Gamma)\) arise from the fixed divisors of reflections. First the obstructions for \(\mathcal F_L (\Gamma)\) being of general type is classified into elliptic, cusp and reflective, and then each case is studied in detail to arrive at the main result.