Termination of (many) 4-dimensional log flips (Q879938)

The Minimal Model Program relies on two main conjectures: existence of flips and termination of flips. Quite unexpectedly \textit{C. Hacon} and \textit{J. McKernan} proved [``On the existence of flips'', \url{arXiv:math/0507597}], that termination essentially implies existence. In this way the focus on termination has been revived. This paper is devoted to prove special cases of termination conjecture in the Minimal Model Program of 4-folds. The core of the paper is a subtle modification of the notion of difficulty, introduced by Shokurov. The results of the authors implies the existence of minimal models for dlt 4-folds of general type and the existence of 5-fold flips, under suitable assumptions. It has to be said that quite recently \textit{C. Birkar, P. Cascini, C. D. Hacon} and \textit{J. McKernan} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 23, No. 2, 405--468 (2010; Zbl 1210.14019); preprint \url{arXiv:math/0610203}], proved the existence of minimal models in arbitrary dimensions, under suitable very mild hypothesis.