Rational cohomology tori (appendix by William F. Sawin) (Q520883)

\textit{F. Catanese} proved that tori are characterised among compact Kähler manifolds by their integral cohomology [Bull. Math. Sci. 5, No. 3, 287--449 (2015; Zbl 1375.14129)]: if a compact Kähler manifold \(X\) has the property that its cohomology ring \(H^\bullet(X, \mathbb Z)\) is isomorphic as a graded ring to \(\bigwedge^\bullet H^1(X, \mathbb Z)\), then \(X\) is a torus. A rational cohomology torus is a normal compact complex space \(X\) in the Fujiki class (so \(X\) is bimeromorphic to a compact Kähler manifold) such that there is an isomorphism of graded \(\mathbb Q\)-algebras \(H^\bullet(X, \mathbb Q) \simeq \bigwedge^\bullet H^1(X, \mathbb Q)\). The Albanese map of a rational cohomology torus is finite onto its image, so using a classical theorem of Kawamata, the authors show that there is a sequence of Iitaka fibrations \[ X \rightarrow X_1 \rightarrow \ldots \rightarrow X_k \] such that \(X_k\) is a point or a rational cohomology torus of general type. Based on this classification, and using earlier work on varieties with vanishing holomorphic Euler characteristic, the authors construct explicit examples of rational cohomology tori of Kodaira dimension \(\kappa \in \{3, \ldots, \dim X-1\}\). There are also singular rational cohomology tori of general type, in the appendix of this paper William Sawin proves that a smooth variety of general type is not a rational cohomology torus. Moreover, the authors prove a number of surprising properties of the Albanese map: let \(X\) be a projective variety of general type with rational singularities that is a rational cohomology torus. Let \(\alpha_X : X \rightarrow A_X\) be the Albanese map. Then there exists a prime number such that \(p^2\) divides the degree of the Albanese map. If \(p\) is the smallest prime dividing the degree, then the abelian variety \(A_X\) has at least \(p+1\) simple factors.