Twistor spaces of algebraic dimension two associated to a connected sum of projective planes (Q4831314)

The conception of twistor spaces originated about 30 years ago from physical investigations of the structure of spacetime. From the mathematical viewpoint a twistor space \(Z\) is a three-dimensional compact complex manifold associated to a self-dual four-manifold \((M, g)\). \(Z\) admits a non-holomorphic differentiable submersion onto \(M\) and the fibers are holomorphic curves isomorphic to \(\mathbb P_1(\mathbb C)\). Twistor spaces are not Kähler, except two counter-examples, see \textit{N. J. Hitchin} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 43, 133--150 (1981; Zbl 0474.14024)]. Of particular interest are the twistor spaces with base \(M=m\mathbb P_2\), the connected sum of \(m\) copies of \(\mathbb P_2(\mathbb C)\), and \(g\) a self-dual conformal class of positive type. With respect to the possible algebraic dimension \(a(Z)\) of these spaces only the case \(a(Z)=2\) was still open. It is \(a(Z)=3\) for \(m\leq 3\), and for every \(m\geq 4\) there exist self-dual metrics on \(m\mathbb P_2\) such that \(a(Z)=3\), see \textit{C. LeBrun} [J. Differ. Geom. 34, No. 1, 223--253 (1991; Zbl 0725.53067)] and \textit{D. D. Joyce} [Duke Math. J. 77, No. 3, 519--552 (1995; Zbl 0855.57028)]. Moreover \(a(Z)\geq 1\) for \(m=4\), and for \(m\geq 5\) (resp. \(m\geq 4\)) there exist twistor spaces \(Z\) with \(a(Z)=0\) (resp. \(a(Z)=1\)), cf. \textit{C. LeBrun} and \textit{Y.-S. Poon} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 5, No. 2, 317--325 (1992; Zbl 0766.53051)]. The first examples of twistor spaces \(Z\) with \(a(Z)=2\) over \(m\mathbb P_2\) were given by \textit{F. Campana} and \textit{B. Kreussler} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 127, No. 9, 2633--2642 (1999; Zbl 0938.32015)] for \(m=4\). The paper under review completes the picture. For every \(m\geq 4\) the author presents examples for twistor spaces with base \(m\mathbb P_2\) and \(a(Z)=2\). These spaces are constructed by small deformations of twistor spaces introduced by \textit{D. Joyce} [loc. cit.] which are associated to \(S^1\times S^1\)-invariant self-dual metrics on \(M=m\mathbb P_2\). They have algebraic dimension 3 and a naturally induced holomorphic action of the torus \(\mathbb C^*\times\mathbb C^*\). The idea of the proof is mainly as follows: It is shown that \(a(Z)=2\) if the fundamental linear system \(| -\frac{1}{2}K_Z| \) contains some special smooth rational surface \(S\). Such a surface is then constructed as a local deformation of a symmetric toric surface \(S_0\) which is a smooth fundamental divisor in a Joyce twistor space \(Z_0\). The situation is not destroyed by local deformations of the pair \((Z_0,S_0)\) and the proof is completed by the deformation of \((Z_0,S_0)\) into \((Z,S)\).