Related papers: Fano 4-folds, flips, and blow-ups of points

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…

We study (smooth, complex) Fano 4-folds X having a rational contraction of fiber type, that is, a rational map X-->Y that factors as a sequence of flips followed by a contraction of fiber type. The existence of such a map is equivalent to…

We study (smooth, complex) Fano 4-folds X with Picard number rho(X)>6. We show that if rho(X)>9, then X is a product of del Pezzo surfaces, thus improving recent results by the author and by the author and S.A. Secci; the statement is now…

We study smooth, complex Fano 4-folds X with a rational contraction onto a 3-fold, namely a rational map X-->Y that factors as a sequence of flips X-->X' followed by a surjective morphism X'->Y with connected fibers, where Y is normal,…

The Picard number of a Fano manifold X obtained by blowing up a curve in a smooth projective variety is known to be at most 5, in any dimension greater than or equal to 4. We show that the Picard number attains to the maximal if and only if…

Let X be a smooth, complex Fano 4-fold, and rho(X) its Picard number. If X contains a prime divisor D with rho(X)-rho(D)>2, then either X is a product of del Pezzo surfaces, or rho(X)=5 or 6. In this setting, we completely classify the case…

Let X be a smooth, complex Fano 4-fold, and rho(X) its Picard number. We show that if rho(X)>12, then X is a product of del Pezzo surfaces. The proof relies on a careful study of divisorial elementary contractions f: X->Y such that the…

Let X be a complex Fano manifold of arbitrary dimension, and D a prime divisor in X. We consider the image H of N_1(D) in N_1(X) under the natural push-forward of 1-cycles. We show that the codimension c of H in N_1(X) is at most 8.…

We classify smooth Fano manifolds X with the Picard number $\rho_X \geq 3$ such that there exists an extremal ray which has a birational contraction that maps a divisor to a point.

Let X be a (smooth, complex) Fano 4-fold. For any prime divisor D in X, consider the image of N_1(D) in N_1(X) under the push-forward of 1-cycles, and let c_D be its codimension in N_1(X). We define an integral invariant c_X of X as the…

We study the birational geometry of a Fano 4-fold X from the point of view of Mori dream spaces; more precisely, we study rational contractions of X. Here a rational contraction is a rational map f: X-->Y, where Y is normal and projective,…

We give a complete classification of smooth, complex projective Fano 4-folds of Picard number 3 having a prime divisor of Picard number 1. They form 28 distinct families, and we compute the main numerical invariants, study the base locus of…

For $n\geq 4$, let $X$ be a complex smooth Fano $n$-fold whose minimal anticanonical degree of non-free rational curves on $X$ is at least $n-2$. We classify extremal contractions of such varieties. As an application, we obtain a…

Let X be a Q-factorial Gorenstein Fano variety. Suppose that the singularities of X are canonical and that the locus where they are non-terminal has dimension zero. Let D be a prime divisor of X. We show that rho_X - rho_D < 9 (where rho is…

Let X be a Fano manifold of pseudoindex i_X whose Picard number is at least two and let R be an extremal ray of X with exceptional locus Exc(R). We prove an inequality which bounds the length of R in terms of i_X and of the dimension of…

Let $X_0$ be a smooth projective threefold which is Fano or which has Picard number $1$. Let $\pi :X\rightarrow X_0$ be a finite composition of blowups along smooth centers. We show that for "almost all" of such $X$, if $f\in Aut(X)$ then…

Let X be the blow-up of a smooth projective 4-fold Y along a smooth curve C and let E be the exceptional divisor. Assume that X is a Fano manifold and has an elementary extremal contraction $\phi: X \to Z$ of (3,1)-type such that E is…

Let X be a smooth complex Fano variety. We define and study 'quasi elementary' contractions of fiber type f: X -> Y. These have the property that rho(X) is at most rho(Y)+rho(F), where rho is the Picard number and F is a general fiber of f.…

We study a particular kind of fiber type contractions between complex, projective, smooth varieties f:X->Y, called Fano conic bundles. This means that X is a Fano variety, and every fiber of f is isomorphic to a plane conic. Denoting by…

Let $X$ be a smooth Fano threefold over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic. Assume that $|-K_X|$ is very ample and each of the index and the Picard number is equal to one. We prove that $3 \leq g \leq 12$ and $g \neq…