Related papers: Contractible curves on a rational surface

We study deformations of rational curves and their singularities in positive characteristic. We use this to prove that if a smooth and proper surface in positive characteristic $p$ is dominated by a family of rational curves such that one…

We give a canonical synthetic construction of the mirror family to a pair (Y,D) of a smooth projective surface with an anti-canonical cycle of rational curves, as the spectrum of an explicit algebra defined in terms of counts of rational…

Two projective varieties are said to be Cremona equivalent if there is a Cremona modification sending one onto the other. In the last decade, Cremona equivalence has been investigated widely, and we now have a complete theory for…

We describe KSB smoothings of log canonical surface pairs $(S, D)$, where $D$ is a reduced curve. In sharp contrast with the $D=\emptyset$ case, cyclic quotient pairs always have KSB smoothings, usually forming many irreducible components.…

We consider normal compact surfaces $Y$ obtained from a minimal class VII surface $X$ by contraction of a cycle $C$ of $r$ rational curves with $C^2<0$. Our main result states that, if the obtained cusp is smoothable, then $Y$ is globally…

The surfaces considered are real, rational and have a unique smooth real $(-2)$-curve. Their canonical class $K$ is strictly negative on any other irreducible curve in the surface and $K^2>0$. For surfaces satisfying these assumptions, we…

We deal with a divisorial contraction in dimension 3 which contracts its exceptional divisor to a smooth point. We prove that any such contraction can be obtained by a suitable weighted blow-up.

Let W -> X be a real smooth projective 3-fold fibred by rational curves. J. Koll\'ar proved that, if W(R) is orientable, then a connected component N of W(R) is essentially either a Seifert fibred manifold or a connected sum of lens spaces.…

We study the family of irreducible curves with $\delta$ nodes belonging to a free linear system $|C|$ with smooth general member on a surface $S$ such that $|K_S|$ is ample. Under the assumption that $C$ is numerically equivalent to $pK_S$,…

We say that a pure simplicial complex ${\mathbf K}$ of dimension $d$ satisfies the removal-collapsibility condition if ${\mathbf K}$ is either empty or ${\mathbf K}$ becomes collapsible after removing $\tilde \beta_d ({\mathbf K}; {\mathbb…

We characterize contractible curves on proper normal algebraic surfaces in terms of complementary Weil divisors. Using this we generalize the classical criteria of Castelnuovo and Artin. As application we derive a finiteness result on…

Suppose that f is a projective birational morphism with at most one-dimensional fibres between d-dimensional varieties X and Y, satisfying ${\bf R}f_* \mathcal{O}_X = \mathcal{O}_Y$. Consider the locus L in Y over which f is not an…

Throughout this paper we study the existence of irreducible curves C on smooth projective surfaces S with singular points of prescribed topological types S_1,...,S_r. There are necessary conditions for the existence of the type \sum_{i=1}^r…

This article proves hypersurfaces of degree d in projective n-space are "rationally simply-connected" if $d^2 \leq n$. In a forthcoming paper, de Jong and I prove a slightly weaker result when $d^2 \leq n+1$.

Any smooth projective curve embeds into $\mathbb{P}^3$. More generally, any curve embeds into a rationally connected variety of dimension at least three. We prove conversely that if every curve embeds in a threefold $X$, then $X$ is…

We study effective divisors $D$ on surfaces with $H^0(\mathcal O_D)=k$ and $H^1(\mathcal O_D)=H^0(\mathcal O_D(D))=0$. We give a numerical criterion for such divisors, following a general investigation of negativity, rigidity and…

Let f: Y -> CP^2 be a birational morphism of non-singular (rational) surfaces. We give an effective (necessary and sufficient) criterion for algebraicity of the surfaces resulting from contraction of the union of the strict transform of a…

A triangulation of a surface is k-irreducible if every non-contractible curve has length at least k and any edge contraction breaks this property. Equivalently, every edge belongs to a non-contractible curve of length k and there are no…

Let X be a smooth, complete, toric variety. We study those curves C in X that are contractible, in the sense that there exists an equivariant morphism with connected fibers, with source X, that contracts exactly the irreducible curves that…

Given a Q-Cartier divisor $S \subset X$ admitting a fibration $S \rightarrow B$ onto a curve we give sufficient conditions for the existence of a bimeromorphic contraction contracting S onto B. As a corollary we recover a contraction result…