Finite morphisms of projective and Kähler manifolds (Q943416)

The paper under review is mostly a survey of known results on the structure of finite surjective holomorphic maps \(f \colon X \rightarrow Y\) between projective or compact Kähler manifolds. To any such map one associates the vector bundle \(\mathcal{E}_f=(f_{\ast}(\mathcal{O}_X)/\mathcal{O}_Y)^{\ast}\). The paper is divided in three parts. The first part studies the problem of classifying all \(Y\) such that \(\mathcal{E}_f\) is ample or nef for all \(f\) and a summary of most known results is given. It is also shown, this is a new result, that if \(Y\) is a projective manifold such that if \(\mathcal{E}_f\) is ample for all finite surjective maps \(f \colon X \rightarrow Y\), then either \(Y\) is Fano with \(b_2(Y)=1\) or \(K_Y\) is nef. An example is given of a Fano \(Y\) with \(b_2(Y)=1\) and a map \(f \colon X \rightarrow Y\) such that \(\mathcal{E}_f\) is not ample showing that the converse is not true. The author goes on to conjecture that if \(Y\) is a rational homogeneous manifold with \(b_2(Y)=1\), then \(\mathcal{E}_f\) is ample for all \(f\). The second part of the paper studies the deformation theory of finite surjective holomorphic maps \(f \colon X \rightarrow Y\) between projective manifolds. Let \(\mathrm{Hom}_f(X,Y)\) be the connected component of \(\mathrm{Hom}(X,Y)\) containing \(f\). A review of some known results on the structure of \(\mathrm{Hom}_f(X,Y)\) is given as well as a summary of most known results on the problem when a deformation of \(f\) is induced by \(\mathrm{Aut}^0(Y)\). Two new results are presented. The first one is that if \(f \colon X \rightarrow Y\) is a finite map between projective manifolds with \(Y \not= \mathbb{P}^n\) and \(\mathcal{E}_f\) is ample, then all deformations of \(f\) come from \(\mathrm{Aut}^0(Y)\). The second is that if \(Y\) is a Del Pezzo surface which is the blow up of \(\mathbb{P}^2\) at \(d \geq 3\) points and \(f \colon X \rightarrow Y\) is a finite map from a smooth projective surface, then any deformation of \(f\) comes from \(\mathrm{Aut}^0(Y)\). The third part contains known results on the structure of projective manifolds \(X\) admitting a surjective endomorphism \( f \colon X \rightarrow X\). It is also conjectured that if \(X\) is a Fano manifold with \(b_2(X)=1\) admitting a surjective endomorphism \(f \colon X \rightarrow X\), then \(X \cong \mathbb{P}^n\).