Relatively Minimal Quasihomogeneous Projective 3-Folds

In the present work we classify the relatively minimal 3-dimensional quasihomogeneous complex projective varieties under the assumption that the automorphism group is not solvable. By relatively minimal we understand varieties X having at most Q-factorial terminal singularities and allowing an extremal contraction X to Y, where dim Y <3

Projective bundles of singular plane cubics

Classification theory and the study of projective varieties which are covered by rational curves of minimal degrees naturally leads to the study of families of singular rational curves. Since families of arbitrarily singular curves are hard to handle, it has been shown in a previous paper that there exists a partial resolution of singularities which transforms a bundle of possibly badly singular curves into a bundle of nodal and cuspidal plane cubics. In cases which are of interest for classification theory, the total spaces of these bundles will clearly be projective. It is, however, generally false that an arbitrary bundle of plane cubics is globally projective. For that reason the question of projectivity seems to be of interest, and the present work gives a characterization of the projective bundles

Pull-back Morphisms for Reflexive Differential Forms

Let f : X -> Y be a morphism between normal complex varieties, and assume that Y is Kawamata log terminal. Given any differential form, defined on the smooth locus of Y, we construct a "pull-back form" on X. The pull-back map obtained by this construction is O_Y-linear, uniquely determined by natural universal properties and exists even in cases where the image of f is entirely contained in the singular locus of the target variety Y. One relevant setting covered by the construction is that where f is the inclusion (or normalisation) of the singular locus of Y. As an immediate corollary, we show that differential forms defined on the smooth locus of Y induce forms on every stratum of the singularity stratification. The same result also holds for many Whitney stratifications.Comment: Final version, to appear in Advances in Mathematic

Boundedness results for singular Fano varieties and applications to Cremona groups

This survey paper reports on work of Birkar, who confirmed a long-standing conjecture of Alexeev and Borisov-Borisov: Fano varieties with mild singularities form a bounded family once their dimension is fixed. Following Prokhorov-Shramov, we explain how this boundedness result implies that birational automorphism groups of projective spaces satisfy the Jordan property, answering a question of Serre in the positive.Comment: Final version. To appear in the proceedings of the January 2019 edition of the S\'eminaire Nicolas Bourbak

Families of singular rational curves

Let X be a projective variety which is covered by a family of rational curves of minimal degree. The classic bend-and-break argument of Mori asserts that if x and y are two general points, then there are at most finitely many curves in that family which contain both x and y. In this work we shed some light on the question as to whether two sufficiently general points actually define a unique curve. As an immediate corollary to the results of this paper, we give a characterization of projective spaces which improves on the known generalizations of Kobayashi-Ochiai's theorem.Comment: Reason for resubmission: improved expositio

On the Classification of 3-dimensional SL_2(C)-varieties

In the present work we describe 3-dimensional complex SL_2-varieties where the generic SL_2-orbit is a surface. We apply this result to classify the minimal 3-dimensional projective varieties with Picard-number 1 where a semisimple group acts such that the generic orbits are 2-dimensional. This is an ingredient of the classification [Keb98, math.AG/9805042] of the 3-dimensional relatively minimal quasihomogeneous varieties where the automorphism group is not solvable

Differential forms on singular spaces, the minimal model program, and hyperbolicity of moduli stacks

This survey discusses hyperbolicity properties of moduli stacks and generalisations of the Shafarevich Hyperbolicity Conjecture to higher dimensions. It concentrates on methods and results that relate moduli theory with recent progress in higher dimensional birational geometry.Comment: 45 pages, 3 figures. Final version, to appear in the Handbook of Moduli, in honour of David Mumford, to be published by International press, editors Gavril Farkas and Ian Morriso

A refinement of Stein factorization and deformations of surjective morphisms

This paper is concerned with a refinement of the Stein factorization, and with applications to the study of deformations of surjective morphisms. We show that every surjective morphism f:X->Y between normal projective varieties factors canonically via a finite cover of Y that is etale in codimension one. This "maximally etale factorization" is characterized in terms of positivity of the push-forward of the structure sheaf and satisfies a functorial property. It turns out that the maximally etale factorization is stable under deformations, and naturally decomposes an etale cover of the Hom-scheme into a torus and into deformations that are relative with respect to the rationally connected quotient of the target Y. In particular, we show that all deformations of f respect the rationally connected quotient of Y

Extending holomorphic forms from the regular locus of a complex space to a resolution of singularities

We investigate under what conditions holomorphic forms defined on the regular locus of a reduced complex space extend to holomorphic (or logarithmic) forms on a resolution of singularities. We give a simple necessary and sufficient condition for this, whose proof relies on the Decomposition Theorem and Saito's theory of mixed Hodge modules. We use it to generalize the theorem of Greb-Kebekus-Kov\'acs-Peternell to complex spaces with rational singularities, and to prove the existence of a functorial pull-back for reflexive differentials on such spaces. We also use our methods to settle the "local vanishing conjecture" proposed by Musta\c{t}\u{a}, Olano, and Popa.Comment: Final version. To appear in slightly shortened version in J. Amer. Math. So

Deformation along subsheaves, II

Let Y be a compact reduced subspace of a complex manifold X, and let F be a subsheaf of the tangent bundle T_X which is closed under the Lie bracket. This paper discusses criteria to guarantee that infinitesimal deformations of the inclusion morphism Y -> X give rise to positive-dimensional deformation families, deforming the inclusion map "along the sheaf F". In case where X is complex-symplectic and F is the sheaf of Hamiltonian vector fields, this partially reproduces known results on unobstructedness of deformations of Lagrangian submanifolds. Written for the IMPANGA Lecture Notes series, this paper aims at simplicity and clarity of argument. It does not strive to present the shortest proofs or most general results available. The proof is rather elementary and geometric, constructing higher-order liftings of a given infinitesimal deformation using flow maps of carefully crafted time-dependent vector fields