Singularities on complete algebraic varieties (Q2501219)

The authors present a number of interesting results on singularities of complex algebraic varieties. Their main result says that given a germ \((Y,y)\) of complex isolated singularity, there is a complex simply connected projective variety \(X\) having a single singular point \(x\), such that the germs \((X,x)\) and \((Y,y)\) are isomorphic. The fact that a projective variety \(X\) with such a singularity \(x\) exists is an easy consequence of a celebrated theorem of M. Artin and the theory of resolution of singularities. The extra condition ``\(\pi _1 (X) = 0\)'' is more difficult to obtain. The authors verify first that one can get a variety \(X\) as above, but with \(\pi _1(X)\) abelian, not necessarily trivial. To accomplish this they work with suitable complete intersections inside certain symmetric powers, exploiting the fact that, for variety \(V\), \(\pi _1(S^n V)\) is isomorphic to \(H_1(V,\mathbb{Z})\) (hence abelian), for \(n>1\). Then they ``reduce'' the abelian fundamental group. They conjecture that given a germ \((Y,y)\) as before, there is a projective variety \(X\) as above, but such that moreover a resolution \(X'\) of \(X\) is simply connected. The authors prove other results. For instance: (a) In their main result, in the case of surfaces, \(X\) cannot have Kodaira dimension equal to \(- \, \infty\). (b) Conditions on a set of two-dimensional rational double points so that there is a rational surface \(X\) whose singularities are (up to isomorphism) the given ones. (c) A refined version of the classical local parametrization theorem for germs of locally irreducible analytic varieties. (d) Using (b) they obtain a new proof of the algebraicity of a normal two-dimensional analytic singularity.