Related papers: (Stable) rationality is not deformation invariant

Smooth projective varieties $X$ over a finite field $k$ with $CH_0(X\otimes \bar{k(X)})=\mathbb Z$ have a rational point, in particular Fano varieties. We also refer to http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00222/tocs.htm where the…

We introduce a notion of stable spherical variety which includes the spherical varieties under a reductive group $G$ and their flat equivariant degenerations. Given any projective space $\bP$ where $G$ acts linearly, we construct a moduli…

We prove a criterion of nonsingularity of a complete intersection of two fiberwise quadrics in a scroll over $P^1$. As a corollary we derive the following addition to the Alexeev theorem on rationality of standard Del Pezzo fibrations of…

We present a pair of smooth fiber bundles over the circle with a common $4$-dimensional fiber with the following properties: (1) their total spaces are diffeomorphic to each other; (2) they are isomorphic to each other as topological fiber…

Kreck and Schafer produced the first examples of stably diffeomorphic closed smooth 4-manifolds which are not homotopy equivalent. They were constructed by applying the doubling construction to 2-complexes over certain finite abelian groups…

Refereed version to appear in Michigan Mathematical Journal. A mistake in the last section of the previous version has been corrected. The new title exactly describes the main result obtained. Building on the geometry of cubic surfaces and…

We prove that a very general complex hypersurface of degree $n+1$ in $\mathbb{P}^{n+1}$ containing an $r$-plane with multiplicity $m$ is not stably rational for $n \ge 3$, $m, r > 0$ and $n \ge m+r$. We also investigate failure of stable…

Let $X$ be a finite, 2-dimensional cell complex. The curvature invariants $\rho_\pm(X)$ and $\sigma_\pm(X)$ were defined in [13], and a programme of conjectures was outlined. Here, we prove the foundational result that the quantities…

A conjecture of Pukhlikov states that a smooth Fano variety of dimension at least four and index one is birationally rigid. We show that a general member of the linear system given by the ample generator of the Picard group of the moduli…

Let C be a smooth projective curve of genus at least 2 over a field k. Given a line bundle L on C, we consider the moduli stack of rank 2n vector bundles E on C endowed with a nowhere degenerate symplectic form $b: E \otimes E \to L$ up to…

Let $X$ be a variety and $H$ a Cartier divisor on $X$. We prove that if $H$ has Du Bois (or DB) singularities, then $X$ has Du Bois singularities near $H$. As a consequence, if $X \to S$ is a family over a smooth curve $S$ whose special…

We construct normal rationally connected varieties (of arbitrarily large dimension) not containing any smooth rational curves.

We study the set of rational curves of a certain topological type in general members of certain families of Calabi-Yau threefolds. For some families we investigate to what extent it is possible to conclude that this set is finite. For other…

We study three methods that prove the positivity of a natural numerical invariant associated to $1-$parameter families of polarized varieties. All these methods involve different stability conditions. In dimension 2 we prove that there is a…

We prove a weak version of a conjecture of Matsushita saying that for a Lagrangian fibration on a hyper-Kaehler manifold $X$, the moduli map for the fibers is either generically of maximal rank or constant. Assuming the base is smooth and…

Let $X$ be a rationally connected smooth projective variety of dimension $n$. We show that $X$ is a toric variety if and only if $X$ admits an int-amplified endomorphism with totally invariant ramification divisor. We also show that $X\cong…

We define a birational version of the stability of cotangent sheaves for complex projective manifolds, and more generally for smooth orbifolds. We then show, using standard conjectures in birational classification, that these cotangent…

We consider fibrations by affine lines on smooth affine surfaces obtained as complements of smooth rational curves $B$ in smooth projective surfaces $X$ defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. We observe that…

Let $\pi\colon \mathcal{X}\to B$ be a family whose general fiber $X_b$ gives a $(d_1,...,d_a)$ polarisation of a general Abelian variety where $1\leq d_i\leq 2$, $i=1,...,a$ and $a\geq 4$. We show that the fibers are in the same birational…

We show that if a stable variety (in the sense of Koll\'ar and Shepherd-Barron) admits a fibration with stable fibers and base, then this fibration structure deforms (uniquely) for all small deformations. During our proof we obtain also a…