On pliability of del Pezzo fibrations and Cox rings (Q507462)

A morphism \(\varphi: X\rightarrow Z\) between projective normal varieties is call a \textit{Mori fibre space} if the following conditions hold: \(\dim X>\dim Z\), \(X\) is \(\mathbb{Q}\)-factorial with at worst klt singularities, \(-K_X\) is \(\varphi\)-ample and the relative Picard number \(\rho(X/Z)=1\). Mori fibre spaces appear as possible final outputs in the Minimal Model Program. The \textit{pliability} of a Mori fibre space \(\varphi: X\rightarrow Z\) is the set of Mori fibre spaces \(Y\rightarrow T\) where \(Y\) is birational to \(X\) modulo the square birational equivalence (see Def.~1.1). In the paper under review, the author studies a del Pezzo surface fibration of degree 4 over \(\mathbb{P}^1\). He shows that for such a Mori fibre space, the cardinality of the pliability is at least three, and how these birational Mori fibre spaces can be connected explicitly by Sarkisov links (cf.~e.g.~ [\textit{C. Hacon} and \textit{J. McKernan}, J. Algebraic Geom. 22, No.~2, 389--405 (2013; Zbl 1267.14024)]). Moreover the author proves the constructed threefold cannot be rational. By contrast, del Pezzo surface fibrations over \(\mathbb{P}^1\) of degree 5 or larger were known to be rational. Following the spirit of \textit{D. Cox} [J. Algebr. Geom. 4, No.~1, 17--50 (1995; Zbl 0846.14032)] and others, the author views a toric variety/Delgine-Mumford stack as a GIT quotient, associated to certain Cox ring and torus action, represented by the data \((I, A)\), where \(I\) is the irrelevant ideal of the Cox ring and \(A\) is a matrix of integers specifying the grading on the Cox ring and hence the torus action (see Section 2). In certain cases when \(\text{rank}A\leq 3\) and \((I, A)\) gives a weighted bundle over a projective space, the author shows how to obtain weighted blowups by transforming the data \((I, A)\) properly, and shows how to connect the different Mori fibre spaces by Sarkisov links via variation of GIT.