Küchle fivefolds of type c5 (Q343657)

In [Math. Z. 218, No. 4, 563--575 (1995; Zbl 0826.14024)], \textit{O. Küchle} classified the smooth Fano 4-folds \(Y\) of index 1 that are zero-sections of homogeneous vector bundles over Grassmannians. In the classification list of Küchle are especiallly interesting the Fano 4-folds \(Y\) with Betti number \(h^{3,1}(Y) = 1\), since e.g. under conditions that \(Y\) is a hypersurface section of a Fano 5-fold \(X\) with no middle cohomology, by the Abel-Jacobi map the unique, up-to proportionality, form \(\Omega \in H^{3,1}(Y)\) yields the existence of a uniquely defined (2,0)-form \(\omega\) on some natural families of curves on \(X\) -- as e.g. families of rational curves of a fixed degree on a cubic fourfold \(Y_3\) (for which \(h^{3,1}(Y_3) = 1\)) and thus to a possibly mildly degenerate symplectic structure \(\omega\) on these families of curves -- see e.g. the paper of \textit{A. J. de Jong} and \textit{J. Starr} [Ill. J. Math. 48, No. 2, 415--450 (2004; Zbl 1081.14007); erratum ibid. 52, No. 1, 345--346 (2008)], and the original paper of \textit{A. Beauville} and \textit{R. Donagi} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I 301, 703--706 (1985; Zbl 0602.14041)] giving the first example of a hyperkähler manifold different from Hilbert squares of K3 surfaces and generalized Kummer surfaces. In his recent paper [\textit{A. G. Kuznetsov}, Izv. Math. 79, No. 4, 698--709 (2015); translation from Izv. Ross. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Mat. 79, No. 4, 57--70 (2015; Zbl 1342.14087)], the author studied the Fano fourfolds \(Y\) from the lists of O. Küchle which have Picard number greater than one. The common for these Fano fourfolds \(Y\) is that if \(h^{3,1}(Y) = 1\) then \(Y\) hapens to be related to a K3 surface and thus possibly does not yield new hyperkähler varieties. The present paper initiates the study of the Fano fourfold (c5) from the lists of Küchle. This is the most interesting Küchle fourfold since it has 20 moduli and a further study of (c5) may yield an explicit description of a new family of hyperkähler manifolds in terms of the geometry of (c5). By its original description, the 4-fold \(Y = (c5)\) is embedded in the Grassmannian \(G(3,7)\) as a zero set of a section \(\mu \oplus \lambda \oplus h\) of the homogeneous bundle \(E = \bigwedge^2 U^* \oplus \bigwedge^3 Q \oplus O(1)\) where \(U\) is the tautological rank 3 subbundle, \(Q\) is the tautological quotient bundle, and \(O(1)\) is the hyperplane bundle on \(G(3,7)\). It is remarkable that the Küchle 4-fold (c5) is a hyperplane section of the (Küchle) 5-fold X ``of type (c5)'', defined as a zero set of the section \(\mu \oplus \lambda\), and as mentioned above, for a further study of the 4-fold (c5) under the context of the hyperkähler geometry it is of importance to know the Hodge structure and the geometry of the 5-fold (c5). The main geometric observation in the present paper is that the general Küchle fivefold \(X\) of type (c5), \ i.e. the zero set \(X \subset G(3,7)\) of a section \(\mu \oplus \lambda\) \ for a genral pair \((\mu,\lambda)\) of sections over \(G(3,7)\) as above, \ is naturally birational to a hyperplane section of the (6-dimensional) \ Lagrangian Grassmannian \(\mathrm{SGr}(3,6)\). In Sections 2 and 3 the author studies in detail the genericity conditions on the pair \((\mu,\lambda)\), which in particular yield that the zero-set \(X = X^5_{\lambda,\mu}\) of \(\mu \oplus \lambda\) is a smooth Fano 5-fold of index 2, see Theorem 4.2. The sections \(\mu\) and \(\lambda\) are defined correspondingly by a 2-form and a 4-form on the 7-space \(W = {\mathbb C}^7\), denoted also by \(\mu\) and \(\lambda\). In order to construct the birationality from \(X\) to a hyperplane section \(\bar{X}\) of \(\mathrm{SGr}(3,6)\), the author first studies the variety of \(\mu\)-isotropic flags \(\mathrm{SFl}(3,4;7) = \mathrm{SFl}(3,4;W)\) for the general 2-form \(\mu\) on the 7-space \(W\). A general 2-form on a 7-space has rank 6, and (mod. the 1-dimensional kernel space of \(\mu)\) defines a non-degenerate form \(\bar{\mu}\) on the quotient 6-space \(\bar{W} = W/Ker(\mu)\), with \(\mathrm{SGr}(3,\bar{W})\) being the Grassmannian of Lagrangian 3-spaces for \(\bar{\mu}\). Next, the author shows that the 9-dimensional isotropic Flag variety \(\mathrm{SFl}(3,4; W)\) for \(\mu\) is a \({\mathbb P}^3\)-bundle over the Lagrangian Grassmannian \(\mathrm{SGr}(3,\bar{W})\) for \(\bar{\mu}\). Further, the codimension 4 zero-set \(\tilde{X} \subset \mathrm{SFl}(3,4; W)\) of \(\lambda\) (which by the map \(\pi: \mathrm{SFl}(3,4;W) \rightarrow \mathrm{SGr}(3,W)\) is birational to the (c5)-Küchle 5-fold \(X = X^5_{\lambda,\mu}\)) is mapped by the \({\mathbb P}^3\)-bundle map \(\mathrm{SFl}(3,4; W) \rightarrow \mathrm{SGr}(3,\bar{W})\) to a hypersurface section \(\bar{X} = \bar{X}^5_{\lambda,\mu}\) of the Lagrangian Grassmannian \(\mathrm{SGr}(3,\bar{W})\), and the author shows that in fact \(\bar{X}\) is a smooth hyperplane section of \(\mathrm{SGr}(3,\bar{W})\). In Section 4 author studies precisely the involved birationality \(X \rightarrow \bar{X}\) between the Küchle 5-fold \(X\) and the hyperplane section \(\bar{X}\), where the exceptional loci come from the existence of isotropic 4-spaces for \(\mu\) through the kernel space of \(\mu\). Theorem 4.2 describes this birationality: First the projection \(\mathrm{SFl}(3,4,;W) \rightarrow \mathrm{SGr}(3,W)\) restricts to a map \(\pi: \tilde{X} \rightarrow X\) which blows up a copy of \(F(1,2;3)\) (i.e. a hyperplane section of \({\mathbb P}^2 \times {\mathbb P}^2\)) and then on \(\tilde{X}\) the \({\mathbb P}^3\)-bundle projection contracts a divisor \(\bar{E}\) on \(\tilde{X}\) to a \({\mathbb P}^1\)-scroll over a del Pezzo surface \(S_6\). One of the applications of this result is a computation of the integral Chow motive of a Küchle fivefold. It is shown that it is of Lefschetz type, i.e., a direct sum of powers of the Lefshetz motive. In particular, this implies that the Chow groups of Küchle fivefolds are free abelian groups of ranks 1, 1, 4, 4, 1, and 1 respectively. The paper also discusses the general hyperplane sections of the (c5)-Küchle 5-folds, i.e. the Küchle fourfolds of type (c5), which as discussed above are expected to be similar to the class of cubic fourfolds in many aspects. In particular, it is shown that these fourfolds are birational to singular quadratic sections of smooth hyperplane sections of \(\mathrm{SGr}(3,6)\).