Singularities of varieties admitting an endomorphism (Q464149)

The existence of finite surjective endomorphisms of degree at least 2 of a normal variety \(X\) should impose restrictions on the singularities of \(X\). This has been previously investigated for example on normal isolated singularities in [\textit{S. Boucksom} et al., Duke Math. J. 161, No. 8, 1455--1520 (2012; Zbl 1251.14026)] and [\textit{M. Fulger}, Ann. Inst. Fourier 63, No. 5, 1793--1847 (2013; Zbl 1297.14015)]. The two papers show that a normal isolated singularity \((X,x)\) with \(K_X\) being \(\mathbb Q\)-Cartier and admitting such an endomorphism \(f\) is necessarily log-canonical. It is furthermore klt if \(f\) is not étale in codimension 1. The main result of the paper under review is that if \(X\) is normal, \(K_X\) is \(\mathbb Q\)-Cartier, and \(f:X\to X\) is a finite endomorphism with \(\deg f>1\), then any irreducible component \(Z\) of the non-lc locus of \(X\) is totally invariant (by some iterate of \(f\)). Such \(Z\) is then not contained in the ramification divisor, and \(\deg(f|_Z)=\deg f\). The result in the previous paragraph is a particular case of this. Another corollary is that if \(X\) is projective, and \(f\) is polarized, then \(X\) has at most log-canonical singularities, and is klt near the ramification divisor. The authors also provide analogues of these results for log pairs \((X,\Delta)\). The techniques come from the minimal mode program, and a careful analysis of the log ramification formula. The strategy is inspired by results of [\textit{N. Nakayama}, ``On complex normal projective surfaces admitting non-isomorphic surjective endomorphisms'', preprint (2008)].