On varieties whose general surface section has negative Kodaira dimension (Q6606932)

This paper deals with the projective classification of irreducible, projective, nondegenerate, linearly normal, complex varieties \(V \subset \mathbb P^r\) of dimension \(n\), with \(r \geq n + 1\), whose general surface section is rational or, more generally, has negative Kodaira dimension. The subject has a long history, going back to papers by Fano for \(n=3\) [\textit{G. Fano}, Scritti matematici offerti ad Enrico d'Ovidio, 342--363 (1918; JFM 46.1016.02)], and \textit{U. Morin} [Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 18, 147--171 (1939; Zbl 0021.05802)]. The results contained in those papers are essentially true, despite the fact that the proofs are affected by a serious gap that the authors of the paper under review explain in the Introduction. Further contribution on this topic are due to \textit{B. V. Martynov} [Math. USSR, Sb. 10, 569--579 (1971; Zbl 0217.05301); translation from Mat. Sb., N. Ser. 81(123), 622--633 (1970); Math. Notes 14, 1029--1032 (1974; Zbl 0315.50011); translation from Mat. Zametki 14, 821--826 (1973)], and to \textit{F. Campana} and \textit{H. Flenner} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 440, 77--98 (1993; Zbl 0769.14014)], who classified pairs \((X, F)\) consisting of a normal threefold \(X\) and a smooth Cartier divisor \(F\) contained in its smooth locus with ample normal bundle and negative Kodaira dimension, by using Mori theory. By combining ideas of Campana and Flenner together with Morin's ones, in the paper under review, the authors first succeed to fix the classification result for threefolds whose general hyperplane section is a rational surface: they obtain a detailed list of such varieties all of which are rational, except for the smooth cubic threefold in \(\mathbb P^4\), which is just unirational. As a corollary, this leads to the complete list of linear systems of rational surfaces in \(\mathbb P^3\) giving rise to birational maps to the image. Next, they partially extend the above result to higher dimensions, proving the rationality of any variety \(V\) of dimension \(n \geq 4\) whose general surface section is rational, except perhaps for smooth cubic hypersurfaces. As to varieties \(V\) whose general surface section \(F\) has negative Kodaira dimension but is not rational, the authors describe all possible types occurring for \(n=3\), showing in particular that \(V\) is always birational to \(F \times \mathbb P^1\). Finally, this result is partially extended to higher dimensions.