K-stability of cubic fourfolds (Q2673071)

This paper studies the K-stability of cubic \(4\)-folds. K-stability is an algebraic stability condition which is used to construct moduli spaces of Fano varieties, which is known as the K-moduli theory. It is expected that smooth Fano hypersurfaces are K-stable and admits Kähler-Einstein metrics. The main result of this paper shows that if \(X\) is a cubic hypersurface in \(\mathbb{P}^5\) (i.e. a cubic \(4\)-fold), then \(X\) is K-(semi/poly)stable iff \(X\) is GIT (semi/poly)stable. In particular, the K-moduli space parametrizing K-polystable \(\mathbb{Q}\)-Fano varieties admitting \(\mathbb{Q}\)-Gorenstein smoothings to smooth cubic \(4\)-fold is isomorphic to the GIT moduli space of cubic fourfolds. As corollaries, any smooth cubic \(4\)-fold is K-stable. In fact, \textit{Y. Liu} and \textit{C. Xu} established a framework in [Duke Math. J. 168, No. 11, 2029--2073 (2019; Zbl 1436.14085)] which reduces the K-stability problem of cubic hypersurface to the ODP Gap conjecture of local volumes, namely, if \((x\in X)\) is a non-smooth klt singularity of dimension \(n\), then \(\widehat{\text{vol}}(x, X)\leq 2(n-1)^n\), and the equality holds iff \(x\) is an ordinary double point. In [loc. cit.], it was shown that the ODP Gap conjecture holds in dimension \(3\). Such conjecture is used to show that the K-semistable limits of cubic hypersurfaces are still hypersurfaces. In this paper, instead of showing the ODP Gap conjecture in the full generality, the author shows the ODP Gap conjecture holds for local complete intersections (in arbitrary dimension), which turns out to be sufficient for the K-stability problem of cubic \(4\)-folds.