On deformations of Q-Fano threefolds II

We investigate some coboundary map associated to a $3$-dimensional terminal singularity which is important in the study of deformations of singular $3$-folds. We prove that this map vanishes only for quotient singularities and a $A_{1,2}/4$-singularity, that is, a terminal singularity analytically isomorphic to a $\mathbb{Z}_4$-quotient of the singularity $(x^2+y^2 +z^3+u^2=0)$. As an application, we prove that a $\mathbb{Q}$-Fano $3$-fold with terminal singularities can be deformed to one with only quotient singularities and $A_{1,2}/4$-singularities. We also treat the $\mathbb{Q}$-smoothability problem on $\mathbb{Q}$-Calabi--Yau $3$-folds.