We show that a divisor in a rational homogenous variety with split normal sequence is the preimage of a hyperplane section in either the projective space or a quadric.

We show that a very general hypersurface of degree $d \geq 4$ and dimension $N \leq (d+1)2^{d-4}$ over a field of characteristic $\neq 2$ does not admit a decomposition of the diagonal; hence, it is neither stably nor retract rational, nor $\mathbb {A}^1$-connected. Similar results hold in characteristic $2$ under a slightly weaker degree bound. This improves earlier results in [44] and [33].

Let $\pi :X\rightarrow Z$ be a Fano type fibration with $\dim X-\dim Z=d$ and let $(X,B)$ be an $\epsilon $-lc pair with $K_X+B\sim _{\mathbb {R}} 0/Z$. The canonical bundle formula gives $(Z,B_Z+M_Z)$ where $B_Z$ is the discriminant divisor and $M_Z$ is the moduli divisor which is determined up to $\mathbb {R}$-linear equivalence. Shokurov conjectured that one can choose $M_Z\geqslant 0$ such that $(Z,B_Z+M_Z)$ is $\delta $-lc where $\delta $ only depends on $d,\epsilon $. Very recently, this conjecture was proved by Birkar [8]. For $d=1$ and $\epsilon =1$, Han, Jiang, and Luo [13] gave the optimal value of $\delta =1/2$. In this paper, we give the optimal value of $\delta $ for $d=1$ and arbitrary $0<\epsilon \leqslant 1$.

We construct pathological examples of MMP singularities in every positive characteristic using quotients by $\alpha _p$-actions. In particular, we obtain non-$S_3$ terminal singularities, as well as locally stable (respectively stable) families whose general fibers are smooth (respectively klt, Cohen–Macaulay, and F-injective) and whose special fibers are non-$S_2$. The dimensions of these examples are bounded below by a linear function of the characteristic.

While the splinter property is a local property for Noetherian schemes in characteristic zero, Bhatt observed that it imposes strong conditions on the global geometry of proper schemes in positive characteristic. We show that if a proper scheme over a field of positive characteristic is a splinter, then its Nori fundamental group scheme is trivial and its Kodaira dimension is negative. In another direction, Bhatt also showed that any splinter in positive characteristic is a derived splinter. We ask whether the splinter property is a derived invariant for projective varieties in positive characteristic and give a positive answer for normal Gorenstein projective varieties with big anticanonical divisor. We also show that global F-regularity is a derived invariant for normal Gorenstein projective varieties in positive characteristic.

We prove existence of flips for log canonical foliated pairs of rank one on a ${\mathbb Q}$-factorial projective klt threefold. This, in particular, provides a proof of the existence of a minimal model for a rank one foliation on a threefold for a wider range of singularities, after McQuillan.

We discuss a conjecture of Shokurov on the semi-ampleness of the moduli part of a general fibration.

It was conjectured by McKernan and Shokurov that for any Fano contraction $f:X \to Z$ of relative dimension r with X being $\epsilon $-lc, there is a positive $\delta $ depending only on $r,\epsilon $ such that Z is $\delta $-lc and the multiplicity of the fiber of f over a codimension one point of Z is bounded from above by $1/\delta $. Recently, this conjecture was confirmed by Birkar [9]. In this article, we give an explicit value for $\delta $ in terms of $\epsilon ,r$ in the toric case, which belongs to $O(\epsilon ^{2^r})$ as $\epsilon \rightarrow 0$. The order $O(\epsilon ^{2^r})$ is optimal in some sense.

We prove motivic versions of mass formulas by Krasner, Serre, and Bhargava concerning (weighted) counts of extensions of local fields.

Given a family of pairs over a smooth curve whose general fiber is a log Calabi–Yau pair in a fixed bounded family, suppose there exists a divisor on the family whose restriction on a general fiber is ample with bounded volume. We show that if the total space of the family has relatively trivial log canonical divisor and the special fiber has slc singularities, then every irreducible component of the special fiber is birationally bounded.

Let $(X,\Delta )$ be a normal pair with a projective morphism $X \to Z$ and let A be a relatively ample $\mathbb {R}$-divisor on X. We prove the termination of some minimal model program on $(X,\Delta +A)/Z$ and the abundance conjecture for its minimal model under assumptions that the non-nef locus of $K_{X}+\Delta +A$ over Z does not intersect the non-lc locus of $(X,\Delta )$ and that the restriction of $K_{X}+\Delta +A$ to the non-lc locus of $(X,\Delta )$ is semi-ample over Z.

We show that for any $n\geq5$ there exist connected algebraic subgroups in the Cremona group $\text{Bir}(\mathbb P^n)$ that are not contained in any maximal connected algebraic subgroup. Our approach exploits the existence of stably rational, non-rational threefolds.

We classify finite groups that act faithfully by symplectic birational transformations on an irreducible holomorphic symplectic (IHS) manifold of $OG10$ type. In particular, if X is an IHS manifold of $OG10$ type and G a finite subgroup of symplectic birational transformations of X, then the action of G on $H^2(X,\mathbb {Z})$ is conjugate to a subgroup of one of 375 groups of isometries. We prove a criterion for when such a group is determined by a group of automorphisms acting on a cubic fourfold, and apply it to our classification. Our proof is computer aided, and our results are available in a Zenodo dataset.

Let X be a smooth threefold over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic. We prove that an arbitrary flop of X is smooth. To this end, we study Gorenstein curves of genus one and two-dimensional elliptic singularities defined over imperfect fields.

Given a general polarized $K3$ surface $S\subset \mathbb P^g$ of genus $g\le 14$, we study projections of minimal degree and their variational structure. In particular, we prove that the degree of irrationality of all such surfaces is at most $4$, and that for $g=7,8,9,11$ there are no rational maps of degree $3$ induced by the primitive linear system. Our methods combine vector bundle techniques à la Lazarsfeld with derived category tools and also make use of the rich theory of singular curves on $K3$ surfaces.

We describe the structure of regular codimension $1$ foliations with numerically projectively flat tangent bundle on complex projective manifolds of dimension at least $4$. Along the way, we prove that either the normal bundle of a regular codimension $1$ foliation is pseudo-effective, or its conormal bundle is nef.

This work presents a range of triangulated characterizations for important classes of singularities such as derived splinters, rational singularities, and Du Bois singularities. An invariant called “level” in a triangulated category can be used to measure the failure of a variety to have a prescribed singularity type. We provide explicit computations of this invariant for reduced Nagata schemes of Krull dimension one and for affine cones over smooth projective hypersurfaces. Furthermore, these computations are utilized to produce upper bounds for Rouquier dimension on the respective bounded derived categories.

This article describes local normal forms of functions in noncommuting variables, up to equivalence generated by isomorphism of noncommutative Jacobi algebras, extending singularity theory in the style of Arnold’s commutative local normal forms into the noncommutative realm. This generalisation unveils many new phenomena, including an ADE classification when the Jacobi ring has dimension zero and, by taking suitable limits, a further ADE classification in dimension one. These are natural generalisations of the simple singularities and those with infinite multiplicity in Arnold’s classification. We obtain normal forms away from some exceptional Type E cases. Remarkably, these normal forms have no continuous parameters, and the key new feature is that the noncommutative world affords larger families.

This theory has a range of immediate consequences to the birational geometry of 3-folds. The normal forms of dimension zero are the analytic classification of smooth 3-fold flops, and one outcome of NC singularity theory is the first list of all Type D flopping germs, generalising Reid’s famous pagoda classification of Type A, with variants covering Type E. The normal forms of dimension one have further applications to divisorial contractions to a curve. In addition, the general techniques also give strong evidence towards new contractibility criteria for rational curves.

We study the relation between the coregularity, the index of log Calabi–Yau pairs and the complements of Fano varieties. We show that the index of a log Calabi–Yau pair $(X,B)$ of coregularity $1$ is at most $120\lambda ^2$, where $\lambda $ is the Weil index of $K_X+B$. This extends a recent result due to Filipazzi, Mauri and Moraga. We prove that a Fano variety of absolute coregularity $0$ admits either a $1$-complement or a $2$-complement. In the case of Fano varieties of absolute coregularity $1$, we show that they admit an N-complement with N at most 6. Applying the previous results, we prove that a klt singularity of absolute coregularity $0$ admits either a $1$-complement or $2$-complement. Furthermore, a klt singularity of absolute coregularity $1$ admits an N-complement with N at most 6. This extends the classic classification of $A,D,E$-type klt surface singularities to arbitrary dimensions. Similar results are proved in the case of coregularity $2$. In the course of the proof, we prove a novel canonical bundle formula for pairs with bounded relative coregularity. In the case of coregularity at least $3$, we establish analogous statements under the assumption of the index conjecture and the boundedness of B-representations.

Given an irreducible projective variety X, the covering gonality of X is the least gonality of an irreducible curve $E\subset X$ passing through a general point of X. In this paper, we study the covering gonality of the k-fold symmetric product $C^{(k)}$ of a smooth complex projective curve C of genus $g\geq k+1$. It follows from a previous work of the first author that the covering gonality of the second symmetric product of C equals the gonality of C. Using a similar approach, we prove the same for the $3$-fold and the $4$-fold symmetric product of C.

A crucial point in the proof is the study of the Cayley–Bacharach condition on Grassmannians. In particular, we describe the geometry of linear subspaces of $\mathbb {P}^n$ satisfying this condition, and we prove a result bounding the dimension of their linear span.