Nef dimension of minimal models (Q706608)

If \(X\) is a minimal model, that is, a complex projective variety with canonical singularities and \(K_X\) nef, then by results of \textit{H. Tsuji} [Numerical trivial fibrations, preprint, \texttt{math.AG/0001023}] and \textit{Th. Bauer} et al. [in: Complex geometry. Collection of papers dedicated to Hans Grauert on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Berlin: Springer. 27--36 (2002; Zbl 1054.14019)] there exists a dominant rational map \(f\colon X \dasharrow Y\) called the nef reduction. It has the property that it is regular over the generic point of \(Y\) and such that a very general curve \(C\) in \(X\) is contracted by \(f\) if and only if \(K_X.C=0\). The nef dimension \(n(X, K)\) is by definition the dimension of \(Y\). The main theorem here proves the abundance conjecture for small values of \(n(X,K)\). Precisely, it is shown that \(| kK_X| \) is base-point free for some \(k>0\) if \(n(X,K)\leq 3\). This has interesting consequences. The abundance conjecture for \(4\)-folds (that some \(| kK_X| \) is base-point free for minimal \(4\)-folds \(X\)) is reduced to the purely numerical assertion that if \(K_X.C>0\) for very general curves \(C\subset X\) then \(K_X\) is big. However, a nef divisor \(D\) need not be big in general. The last part of the paper illustrates this point, classifying surfaces \(X\) with a divisor \(D\) that is nef but not big. The proofs use a description of \(f\) as birationally equivalent to a parabolic fibre space \(f'\colon X'\dasharrow Y'\). By an adjunction formula for such spaces and log abundance on \(Y'\) (this is where the condition on \(n(X,K)\) is needed) the image of \(K\) in \(Y'\) is shown to be semiample.