19
votes
Rational curves on varieties of general type
I am surprised nobody mentioned the result of Lu and Miyaoka (Math. Res. Letter 2, 663-676 (1995)) which implies indeed that there are only finitely many smooth rational curves on a surface of general ...
- 35.7k
16
votes
Accepted
When do 27 lines lie on a cubic surface?
It turns out that condition (T) is, indeed, sufficient for the $27$ lines (distinct and intersecting as expected) to lie on a cubic surface.
To see this, consider the lines $a_1,a_2,a_3,a_4,a_5$ and $...
- 26.4k
15
votes
Restriction of the Picard group of a surface to a curve
Edit. I edited the argument below to make it work in all characteristics. By SGA $7_{II}$ Exposé XVII, this requires working with a sufficiently general pencil of divisors in $\mathcal{O}_{\...
15
votes
Seeking concrete examples of "generic" elliptic fibrations of K3 surfaces
Weierstrass equations are probably a good choice. You can try
$$y^2 = x^3 - 3x +2 t^{12},$$ for example.
Here the singular fibers are when $t$ is a $24$th root of unity $\zeta$, and the double point ...
- 126k
14
votes
Accepted
Enriques surfaces over $\mathbb Z$
A preprint by Stefan Schröer came out today with the answer to this question: arXiv:2004.07025.
No such Enriques surface exists. In fact, there is no classical Enriques surface over $\mathbb F_2$ ...
14
votes
Accepted
Homeomorphism between del Pezzo surfaces
Yes, with precisely one exception.
If $K^2 \neq 8$, then the del Pezzo surface is the blow-up of the plane at $9-K^2$ points, so it is homeomorphic to the connected sum of $\mathbb{CP}^2$ with $9-K^2$...
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14
votes
Accepted
Classification of smooth algebraic surfaces with a smooth morphism to $\Bbb P^1$
Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field.
Let $f:X\to \mathbb{P}^1$ be a smooth proper morphism with fibres of dimension one. Note that the fibres of $f$ are geometrically connected by Stein ...
- 9,127
12
votes
Accepted
Analogies between classical geometry on complex surfaces and Arakelov geometry
These are indeed good questions, and while there is a very good corpus of answers to them, the analogy is not perfect.
0. The non-archimedean analogy
First of all, I would like to go back to the ...
- 12.6k
11
votes
Accepted
Where to find "Families of curves on a surface of general type" (MR0457450)?
My local library has the paper version, here is a scan.
- 6,548
10
votes
Accepted
Is it normal surface of general type to have infinitely many positive rank elliptic curves?
I am only posting this as an answer because it annoys me to see a question like this listed as "unanswered", thus "hovering" near the top of the list of unanswered questions. If dhy wants to write up ...
10
votes
Accepted
Automorphisms of del Pezzo surfaces
Not exactly. The quadratic transformation commutes with the action of $S_3$, and they both act on $(\mathbb{C}^*)^2$; so the automorphism group is $(\mathbb{C}^{*})^{2}\rtimes (S_3\times S_2)$. You'll ...
- 35.7k
10
votes
Accepted
Additivity of Kodaira dimension for a nice fibration
There is another inequality which says the following:
Easy addition
(Using the same notation):
$$
\kappa(X)\leqslant \kappa(X_y) + \dim Y
$$
Consequently, if $Y$ is of general type, i.e., $\...
- 41.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Algebraic surfaces with no deformations
There are several different notions of "rigidity" (local rigidity, global rigidity, infinitesimal rigidity, étale rigidity and strong rigidity) and it is possible to provide examples for each of them.
...
- 63.9k
10
votes
Accepted
A diffeomorphism of complex surfaces mapping subvarieties to subvarieties
I am posting this answer because the following linear algebra proposition is too long for a comment.
Lemma. Let $A$, respectively $B$, be an invertible $\mathbb{R}$-linear operator on $\mathbb{C}^2$ ...
10
votes
Accepted
Topology change induced by small perturbation
The formal statement you are thinking of when you assert "The topology changes only when..." is Ehresmann's theorem: a proper smooth submersion is a fiber bundle, and hence all fibers are ...
- 8,910
9
votes
Is it normal surface of general type to have infinitely many positive rank elliptic curves?
This is more or less what Jason has done, but maybe a bit more direct, and it is so elementary that it's hard not to call it an exercise that possibly does not belong on MO. Start with $y^2=x^4+z^6$. ...
- 44.2k
9
votes
Accepted
Pull-back of an irreducible ample divisor via an isogeny of abelian varieties
I think the Proposition is not true if $D$ is singular. Take a smooth curve $C$ of genus 2, and $X=JC$; embed $C$ in $X$ (say, by choosing a point of $C$). Let $\alpha$ be a point of order 2 in $X$; ...
- 35.7k
9
votes
Intersection graph of $(-1)$-class divisors on surface of general type
On any surface $X$ with non-negative Kodaira dimension the $(-1)$-curves (i.e, the smooth rational curves $D$ with $D^2=-1$) are isolated, in other words any two of them do not intersect. From this ...
- 63.9k
9
votes
Accepted
Show Fiber Product of Rational Elliptic Surfaces is Calabi-Yau
The diagonal $\Delta $ is linearly equivalent to $\{p\}\times \mathbb{P}^1 +\mathbb{P}^1\times \{p\} $ for any $p$ in $\mathbb{P}^1$. Therefore $X$ is the zero locus in $S\times S'$ of a section of $L:...
- 35.7k
9
votes
Is there a way to find any non-trivial $\mathbb{F}_p(t)$-point on the given elliptic curve?
If $2$ is a cube mod $p$ then you can take
$(x,y) = (ct^2, t^6-1)$ where $c^3 = -4$.
This works for every odd $p \equiv -1 \bmod 3$,
but since you specified $p \equiv +1 \bmod 3$
the first case is $p=...
- 75.2k
9
votes
Is there a way to find any non-trivial $\mathbb{F}_p(t)$-point on the given elliptic curve?
You can observe that the elliptic curve $E_2: y^2=x^3+(t^3+1)^2$ is a generic fibre of a rational elliptic surface. Over the algebraically closed field $k$ the group of $k(t)$ points on the curve has ...
- 193
9
votes
Accepted
Motivation for birational geometry
what are some interesting properties of varieties that are preserved under birational transforms?
I will answer the question for smooth projective varieties (certainly a geometrically nice class of ...
- 126k
9
votes
Motivation for birational geometry
Will has already said many of the things I would have said trying to answer your extended question, but let me add a few things without trying to avoid overlap.
In fact, let me start with an overlap: ...
- 41.6k
9
votes
Accepted
What is the surface area of the finite part of the Cayley nodal cubic surface?
Here is the start of an answer - I am afraid that I don't want to spend any more of my time thinking about this problem, but it gets the answer in terms of an integral that looks very computable. ...
- 1,036
8
votes
Del Pezzo surfaces and homotopy groups of spheres
Borrowing from 4 different comments to make a complete answer (and making it community wiki):
We can construct a bijection between the set of del Pezzo surfaces and $\pi_4(S_3)$ using topology. ...
8
votes
Accepted
Polars of algebraic curves and surfaces
Geometrically, one first meets polar hypersurfaces when studying tangent lines from a point to a hypersurface. In fact, this concept generalizes the classical polarity of a point with respect to a ...
- 63.9k
8
votes
Accepted
Are any of these complex surfaces ever projective?
Here is a simple method for constructing projective examples:
Assume there exist maps $f:C \to \mathbb{P}^1$ and $g:T \to \mathbb{P}^1$ of the same degree which are totally ramified at $c$ and $t$. ...
8
votes
Accepted
Volume of a divisor on a smooth projective surface
At least for effective divisors, the answer is strongly related to Zariski decomposition.
If $D$ is an effective divisor on a smooth surface $X$, Zariski proved in [Z62] that there exists a unique ...
- 63.9k
7
votes
Accepted
Euler Characteristic of Real Algebraic Surfaces
A “formula” is a lot to ask for, but there are algorithms based on Morse theory.
E.g. §5 of Basu (1999), or §3 of Fortuna-Gianni-Luminati (2004).
- 29k
7
votes
Accepted
What's $H^*(X - \{x_1,\ldots,x_n\},\mathcal{O})$, when $X$ is a projective smooth surface?
The general reference for what follows is SGA 2, §1 to 4. Let $S\subset X$ be a finite subset, and $U:=X\smallsetminus S$. There is an exact sequence
$$H^1_S(X,\mathcal{O}_X)\rightarrow H^1(X,\...
- 35.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible