English

Intersections of two Grassmannians in $\mathbf{P}^9$

Algebraic Geometry 2018-04-12 v3

Abstract

We study the intersection of two copies of Gr(2,5)\mathrm{Gr}(2,5) embedded in P9\mathbf{P}^9, and the intersection of the two projectively dual Grassmannians in the dual projective space. These intersections are deformation equivalent, derived equivalent Calabi-Yau threefolds. We prove that generically they are not birational. As a consequence, we obtain a counterexample to the birational Torelli problem for Calabi-Yau threefolds. We also show that these threefolds give a new pair of varieties whose classes in the Grothendieck ring of varieties are not equal, but whose difference is annihilated by a power of the class of the affine line. Our proof of non-birationality involves a detailed study of the moduli stack of Calabi-Yau threefolds of the above type, which may be of independent interest.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1707.00534,
  title  = {Intersections of two Grassmannians in $\mathbf{P}^9$},
  author = {Lev A. Borisov and Andrei Caldararu and Alexander Perry},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1707.00534},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

30 pages, minor changes

R2 v1 2026-06-22T20:36:17.587Z