Related papers: Constructions of singular rational surfaces of Pic…
We construct some complex surfaces of general type with maximal Picard number. These examples arise as fibrations of genus two curves over quaternionic Shimura curves.
Koll\'ar's conjecture states that a complex projective surface $S$ with quotient singularities and with $H^2(S,\bbQ)\cong \bbQ$ should be rational if its smooth part $S^0$ is simply connected. We confirm the conjecture under the additional…
We classify the singularities of a surface ruled by conics: they are rational double points of type $A_n$ or $D_n$. This is proved by showing that they arise from a precise series of blow-ups of a suitable surface geometrically ruled by…
We derive simple formulas for the basic numerical invariants of a singular surface with Picard number one obtained by blowups and contractions of the four-line configuration in the plane. As an application, we establish the smallest…
We classify all complex surfaces with quotient singularities that do not contain any smooth rational curves, under the assumption that the canonical divisor of the surface is not pseudo-effective. As a corollary we show that if $X$ is a log…
We give an explicit description of all quasismooth, rational, projective surfaces of Picard number one that admit a non-trivial torus action and have an integral canonical self intersection number.
A cyclic quotient singularity of type $p^2/pq-1$ ($0<q<p, (p,q)=1$) has a smoothing whose Milnor fibre is a $\mathbb Q$HD, or rational homology disk (i.e., the Milnor number is $0$) ([9], 5.9.1). In the 1980's, we discovered additional…
We consider singular Q-acyclic surfaces with smooth locus of non-general type. We prove that if the singularities are topologically rational then the smooth locus is C^1- or C*-ruled or the surface is up to isomorphism one of two…
By developing a suitable version of the circle method, we show that the space of degree $e$ rational curves on a smooth hypersurface of degree $d$ has only canonical singularities provided its dimension is sufficiently large with respect to…
Consider the scheme parametrizing non-constant morphisms from a fixed projective curve to a projective surface. There is a rational map between this scheme and the Chow variety of $1$-cycles on the surface. We prove that, if the curve is…
This is a detailed write-up of Koll\'ar's course at the EMS summer school in Algebraic Geometry in Eger, Hungary, August 1996. The topics include definitions and examples of rational and unirational varieties, with special attention to…
In this article, we investigate some properties of cyclic coverings of complex surfaces of general type branched along smooth curves that are numerically equivalent to a multiple of the canonical class. The main results concern coverings of…
We prove that the Cox ring of a smooth rational surface with big anticanonical class is finitely generated. We classify surfaces of this type that are blow-ups of the plane at distinct points lying on a (possibly reducible) cubic.
This paper is concerned with projective rationally connected surfaces $X$ with canonical singularities and having non-zero pluri-forms, i.e. $(\Omega_X^1)^{[\otimes m]}$ has non-zero global sections for some m > 0, where…
We study the surface $\bar{S}$ parametrizing cuboids: it is defined by the equations relating the sides, face diagonals and long diagonal of a rectangular box. It is an open problem whether a `rational box' exists, i.e., a rectangular box…
We study real double covers of $\mathbb P^1\times\mathbb P^2$ branched over a $(2,2)$-divisor, which have the structure of a conic bundle threefold with smooth quartic discriminant curve via the second projection. In each isotopy class of…
We construct a linearly normal smooth rational surface S of degree 11 and sectional genus 8 in the projective fivespace. Surfaces satisfying these numerical invariants are special, in the sense that $h^1(\mathscr{O}_S(1))>0$. Our…
We construct rational elliptic surfaces of index two by explicitly constructing their associated Halphen pencils in the projective plane $\mathbb{P}^2$. For each of the types of singular fibers that occur we construct at least one example…
We construct explicit examples of $K3$ surfaces over ${\mathbb Q}$ having real multiplication. Our examples are of geometric Picard rank 16. The standard method for the computation of the Picard rank provably fails for the surfaces…
This note gives two examples of surfaces with normal crossing singularities. In the first example the canonical ring is not finitely generated. In the second, the canonical line bundle is not ample but its pull back to the normalization is…