Additive group actions on Danielewski varieties and the cancellation problem (Q2471769)

A new wide class of counterexamples to the Cancellation Problem is introduced in the paper. Let \(X, Y\) be two complex affine varieties of the same dimension. The Cancellation Problem asks whether the isomorphism \(X \times \mathbb C\cong Y\times \mathbb C\) implies that \( X \cong Y.\) For varieties with non-negative log-Kodaira dimension the answer is positive, but in general it is not true. The counterexample are the famous Danielewski surfaces \[ S_n=\{(x,y,z)\in\mathbb C^3| \quad x^ny=z^2-1\} \] that where introduced by \textit{W. Danielewski} [preprint] and generalized and classified by \textit{K. H. Fieseler} [Comment. Math. Helv. 69, 5--27 (1994; Zbl 0806.14033)] and \textit{J. Wilkens} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér I 326, No. 9, 1111--1116 (1998; Zbl 0934.14041)]. The main property of these surfaces is that they are a \(\mathbb C^+\)-principal bundle over an affine line with one multiple point. In this paper the notion of Danielewski variety of arbitrary dimension and codimension with the similar structure is introduced. These varieties are studied, classified and are shown to be counterexamples to Cancellation Problem. The methods and results are the far-reaching generalizations of the ones of the papers mentioned above.