Complements on conic fibrations. I (Q5960204)

These notes summarize the lectures given at Moscow State University and the Steklov Mathematical Institute in Autumn 1997. Main result: Proposition 0.1. Let \(f:X\to Z\) be an extremal contraction from a 3-fold with log-terminal \(\mathbb{Q}\)-factorial singularities such that \(\rho (X/Z)=1\), \(-K_X\) is \(f\)-ample, and \(\dim f^{-1}(z)=1\) for every point \(z\in Z\). Then near every fiber \(f^{-1} (z)\), the canonical divisor \(K_X\) is \(n\)-complemented for some \(n<N\), where \(N>0\) is a constant independent of \(f\). The idea of the proof is an easy reduction to the two-dimensional case and, after that, the use of the Shokurov theorem on the boundedness of two-dimensional complements. There is a conjecture (important for applications) that in the case where \(X\) has log-terminal singularities, we can set \(N=1\). This conjecture was proved in the analytic case for birational contractions by Mori and Kollar. In the general case, the exact value of the constant \(N\) for terminal (canonical, log-terminal) singularities \(X\) is unknown.