\(\mathbb{Q}\)-Gorenstein smoothings of surfaces and degenerations of curves (Q509920)

This paper treats \(\mathbb Q\)-Gorenstein smoothings of projective surfaces with only Wahl singularities, i.e., cyclic quotient singularities \(\frac{1}{n^2} (1,na-1)\) with \(\gcd(n,a)=1\). A \textit{W-surface} is a normal projective surfaces \(X\) with at most Wahl singularities, together with a proper deformation \( (X\subset \mathcal X) \to (0\in \mathbb{D})\) such that \(\mathcal X \) is a normal complex 3-fold with \(K_{\mathcal X} \) \(\mathbb Q\)-Cartier, the central fiber \(X_0\) is reduced and isomorphic to \(X\), and the fiber \(X_t\) is smooth for \(t\neq 0\). It turns out that W-surfaces have some similarities with smooth projective surfaces. In the first part of the paper the author makes this precise, showing their MMP with explicit birational operations as in [\textit{P. Hacking} et al., J. Algebr. Geom. 26, No. 2, 279--345 (2017; Zbl 1360.14055)], minimal and canonical models, and some numerical invariants. The author focus then on W-surfaces such that a resolution of the special fiber \(X\) and general fiber \(X_t\) have the same plurigenera, in particular when they are birational. He shows: any birational \(\mathbb Q\)-Gorenstein smoothing comes from a smooth deformation (continuous part) followed by certain specific birational 3-fold operations (discrete part). These operations are the explicit flips and divisorial contractions in the cited paper. A distinguished non-trivial case in this theorem is normal degenerations of \(\mathbb P^ 2\), which is treated separately. The ``continuous part'' is then interpreted as degeneration of certain curves in the general fiber, and one can keep track of curve degenerations after each flip and divisorial contraction. He gives concrete examples using curves in \(\mathbb{ P}^2\), and shows how these kind of examples appear in the Kollár\(-\)Shepherd-Barron\(-\)Alexeev boundary of the moduli space of surfaces of general type. The idea is to use the ``continuous part'' to explore the KSBA boundary. He concludes giving four examples where birational \(\mathbb Q\)-Gorenstein deformations appear studying the boundary of the KSBA compactification of the moduli space of surfaces of general type with \(K^2=1\), \(p_g=0\), and \(\pi_1=0\).