Picard-Fuchs operators for octic arrangements. I: The case of orphans (Q2418743)

In this nicely written article, botanical in its nature, the authors report on $25$ families of Calabi-Yau threefolds which do not have a point of maximal unipotent monodromy. In the story the key rôle is played by a special class of Calabi-Yau threefolds, namely the double octics which can be described shortly as the double covers $Y$ of $\mathbb{P}^{3}$ branched along degree $8$ surfaces. If the equation of our surface splits into $8$ linear factors, then the problem becomes combinatorial and it boils down to study the octic arrangements in $\mathbb{P}^{3}$. Under certain conditions on the singularities of octic arrangements, and after taking the minimal resolutions, one can construct interesting Calabi-Yau threefolds. In his PhD thesis ([A dictionary of modular threefolds (2005, \url{urn:nbn:de:hebis:77-7510})]; see also [Modular Calabi-Yau threefolds. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2005; Zbl 1096.14032)]), \textit{C. Meyer} determined $450$ combinatorially different octic arrangements, among them $11$ are rigid in the sense that the moduli spaces of these arrangements are trivial, and $63$ one-parameter families of arrangements leading to $63$ one-dimensional families of Calabi-Yau threefolds. As the main result, the authors show that among these $63$ families, $18$ are the so-called fourth order orphans (this nomenclature was suggested by Zudilin -- families which do not have maximal unipotent monodromy points), and by order four one means in fact the Picard-Fuchs operator of order four. Additionally, the authors detected also $7$ orphans of order two.