Fano 4-folds with a small contraction

Abstract: Let X be a smooth complex Fano 4-fold. We show that if X has a small elementary contraction, then the Picard number rho(X) of X is at most 12. This result is based on a careful study of the geometry of X, on which we give a lot of information. We also show that in the boundary case rho(X)=12 an open subset of X has a smooth fibration with fiber the projective line. Together with previous results, this implies if X is a Fano 4-fold with rho(X)>12, then every elementary contraction of X is divisorial and sends a divisor to a surface. The proof is based on birational geometry and the study of families of rational curves. More precisely the main tools are: the study of families of lines in Fano 4-folds and the construction of divisors covered by lines, a detailed study of fixed prime divisors, the properties of the faces of the effective cone, and a detailed study of rational contractions of fiber type.

Review text

Smooth complex Fano varieties are classified up to dimension \(3\). In the \(4\)-dimensional case, the known examples are either products of Del Pezzo surfaces or \(4\)-folds whose Picard number \(\rho\) is less than or equal to \(9\). Moreover, there is just one known family whose Picard number is \(9\) (see the Intoduction of the paper under review and references therein). It is the main goal of this paper to study Fano \(4\)-folds \(X\), focusing on their birational geometry. It was known that if \(X\) has an elementary contraction of fiber type, then \(\rho \le 11\), and that if it has an elementary divisorial contraction sending a divisor to a point or a surface, then \(\rho \leq 5\). The main results of this paper (see Thm. 1.1 and Cor. 1.2) complement these statements in the case of small contractions. To be precise: the Picard number of a smooth Fano \(4\)-fold having an elementary small contraction is \(\le 12\). This, together with the known quoted results, concludes that every elementary contraction of a smooth Fano \(4\)-fold of Picard number \(\geq 13\) is divisorial and sends the exceptional divisor to a surface (which is or course the case when \(X\) is a product of Del Pezzo surfaces). The proof relies, on one hand, on the study of the families of lines (rational curves of anticanonical degree equal to 1) on \(X\), and divisors \(D\) covered by such lines. These divisors are, when \(\rho \geq 7\), either nef or fixed (\(D\) is the stable base locus of the complete linear system \(|D|\)) of some particular type. On the other hand, the proof needs the study of the faces of the effective cone of \(X\) and a careful analysis of its rational contractions of fiber type.

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(13)

This page was built for publication: Fano 4-folds with a small contraction

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2155188)