Let $X$ denote the ‘conifold smoothing’, the symplectic Weinstein manifold which is the complement of a smooth conic in $T^*S^3$ or, equivalently, the plumbing of two copies of $T^*S^3$ along a Hopf link. Let $Y$ denote the ‘conifold resolution’, by which we mean the complement of a smooth divisor in $\mathcal {O}(-1) \oplus \mathcal {O}(-1) \to \mathbb {P}^1$. We prove that the compactly supported symplectic mapping class group of $X$ splits off a copy of an infinite-rank free group, in particular is infinitely generated; and we classify spherical objects in the bounded derived category $D(Y)$ (the three-dimensional ‘affine $A_1$-case’). Our results build on work of Chan, Pomerleano and Ueda and Toda, and both theorems make essential use of working on the ‘other side’ of the mirror.

We prove several boundedness statements for geometrically integral normal del Pezzo surfaces X over arbitrary fields. We give an explicit sharp bound on the irregularity if X is canonical or regular. In particular, we show that wild canonical del Pezzo surfaces exist only in characteristic $2$. As an application, we deduce that canonical del Pezzo surfaces form a bounded family over $\mathbb {Z}$, generalising work of Tanaka. More generally, we prove the BAB conjecture on the boundedness of $\varepsilon $-klt del Pezzo surfaces over arbitrary fields of characteristic different from $2, 3$ and $5$.

We construct the first example of a stable hyperholomorphic vector bundle of rank five on every hyper-Kähler manifold of $\mathrm {K3}^{[2]}$-type whose deformation space is smooth of dimension 10. Its moduli space is birational to a hyper-Kähler manifold of type OG10. This provides evidence for the expectation that moduli spaces of sheaves on a hyper-Kähler could lead to new examples of hyper-Kähler manifolds.

Inspired by K. Fujita's algebro-geometric result that complex projective space has maximal degree among all K-semistable complex Fano varieties, we conjecture that the height of a K-semistable metrized arithmetic Fano variety $\mathcal {X}$ of relative dimension $n$ is maximal when $\mathcal {X}$ is the projective space over the integers, endowed with the Fubini–Study metric. Our main result establishes the conjecture for the canonical integral model of a toric Fano variety when $n\leq 6$ (the extension to higher dimensions is conditioned on a conjectural ‘gap hypothesis’ for the degree). Translated into toric Kähler geometry, this result yields a sharp lower bound on a toric invariant introduced by Donaldson, defined as the minimum of the toric Mabuchi functional. Furthermore, we reformulate our conjecture as an optimal lower bound on Odaka's modular height. In any dimension $n$ it is shown how to control the height of the canonical toric model $\mathcal {X},$ with respect to the Kähler–Einstein metric, by the degree of $\mathcal {X}$. In a sequel to this paper our height conjecture is established for any projective diagonal Fano hypersurface, by exploiting a more general logarithmic setup.

Sextic double solids, double covers of $\mathbb P^3$ branched along a sextic surface, are the lowest degree Gorenstein terminal Fano 3-folds, hence are expected to behave very rigidly in terms of birational geometry. Smooth sextic double solids, and those which are $\mathbb Q$-factorial with ordinary double points, are known to be birationally rigid. In this paper, we study sextic double solids with an isolated compound $A_n$ singularity. We prove a sharp bound $n \leq 8$, describe models for each n explicitly, and prove that sextic double solids with $n> 3$ are birationally nonrigid.

We categorify the inclusion–exclusion principle for partially ordered topological spaces and schemes to a filtration on the derived category of sheaves. As a consequence, we obtain functorial spectral sequences that generalize the two spectral sequences of a stratified space and certain Vassiliev-type spectral sequences; we also obtain Euler characteristic analogs in the Grothendieck ring of varieties. As an application, we give an algebro-geometric proof of Vakil and Wood's homological stability conjecture for the space of smooth hypersurface sections of a smooth projective variety. In characteristic zero this conjecture was previously established by Aumonier via topological methods.

We give a vanishing and classification result for holomorphic differential forms on smooth projective models of the moduli spaces of pointed K3 surfaces. We prove that there is no nonzero holomorphic k-form for $0<k<10$ and for even $k>19$. In the remaining cases, we give an isomorphism between the space of holomorphic k-forms with that of vector-valued modular forms ($10\leq k \leq 18$) or scalar-valued cusp forms (odd $k\geq 19$) for the modular group. These results are in fact proved in the generality of lattice-polarisation.

The $4 n^2$-inequality for smooth points plays an important role in the proofs of birational (super)rigidity. The main aim of this paper is to generalize such an inequality to terminal singular points of type $cA_1$, and obtain a $2 n^2$-inequality for $cA_1$ points. As applications, we prove birational (super)rigidity of sextic double solids, many other prime Fano 3-fold weighted complete intersections, and del Pezzo fibrations of degree $1$ over $\mathbb {P}^1$ satisfying the $K^2$-condition, all of which have at most terminal $cA_1$ singularities and terminal quotient singularities. These give first examples of birationally (super)rigid Fano 3-folds and del Pezzo fibrations admitting a $cA_1$ point which is not an ordinary double point.

We prove a criterion for the constancy of the Hilbert–Samuel function for locally Noetherian schemes such that the local rings are excellent at every point. More precisely, we show that the Hilbert–Samuel function is locally constant on such a scheme if and only if the scheme is normally flat along its reduction and the reduction itself is regular. Regularity of the underlying reduced scheme is a significant new property.

In this article, we study quasimaps to moduli spaces of sheaves on a $K3$ surface S. We construct a surjective cosection of the obstruction theory of moduli spaces of $\epsilon $-stable quasimaps. We then establish reduced wall-crossing formulas which relate the reduced Gromov–Witten theory of moduli spaces of sheaves on S and the reduced Donaldson–Thomas theory of $S\times C$, where C is a nodal curve. As applications, we prove the Hilbert-schemes part of the Igusa cusp form conjecture; higher-rank/rank-one Donaldson–Thomas correspondence with relative insertions on $S\times C$, if $g(C)\leq 1$; Donaldson–Thomas/Pandharipande–Thomas correspondence with relative insertions on $S\times \mathbb {P}^1$.

The goal of this paper is to describe certain nonlinear topological obstructions for the existence of first-order smoothings of mildly singular Calabi–Yau varieties of dimension at least $4$. For nodal Calabi–Yau threefolds, a necessary and sufficient linear topological condition for the existence of a first-order smoothing was first given in [Fri86]. Subsequently, Rollenske–Thomas [RT09] generalized this picture to nodal Calabi–Yau varieties of odd dimension by finding a necessary nonlinear topological condition for the existence of a first-order smoothing. In a complementary direction, in [FL22a], the linear necessary and sufficient conditions of [Fri86] were extended to Calabi–Yau varieties in every dimension with $1$-liminal singularities (which are exactly the ordinary double points in dimension $3$ but not in higher dimensions). In this paper, we give a common formulation of all of these previous results by establishing analogues of the nonlinear topological conditions of [RT09] for Calabi–Yau varieties with weighted homogeneous k-liminal hypersurface singularities, a broad class of singularities that includes ordinary double points in odd dimensions.

We give a lattice-theoretic characterization for a manifold of $\operatorname {\mathrm {OG10}}$ type to be birational to some moduli space of (twisted) sheaves on a K3 surface. We apply it to the Li–Pertusi–Zhao variety of $\operatorname {\mathrm {OG10}}$ type associated to any smooth cubic fourfold. Moreover, we determine when a birational transformation is induced by an automorphism of the K3 surface, and we use this to classify all induced birational symplectic involutions.

We systematically study the moduli stacks of Higgs bundles, spectral curves, and Norm maps on Deligne–Mumford curves. As an application, under some mild conditions, we prove the Strominger–Yau–Zaslow duality for the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles over a hyperbolic stacky curve.

We construct a collection of families of higher Chow cycles of type $(2,1)$ on a two-dimensional family of Kummer surfaces, and prove that for a very general member, they generate a subgroup of rank $\ge 18$ in the indecomposable part of the higher Chow group. Construction of the cycles uses a finite group action on the family, and the proof of their linear independence uses Picard–Fuchs differential operators.

The attractor conjecture for Calabi–Yau moduli spaces predicts the algebraicity of the moduli values of certain isolated points picked out by Hodge-theoretic conditions. Using tools from transcendence theory, we provide a family of counterexamples to the attractor conjecture in almost all odd dimensions conditional on a specific case of the Zilber–Pink conjecture in unlikely intersection theory; these Calabi–Yau manifolds were first studied by Dolgachev. We also give constructions of new families of Calabi–Yau varieties, analogous to the mirror quintic family, with all middle Hodge numbers equal to one, which would also give counterexamples to the attractor conjecture.

Given a perfect field $k$ with algebraic closure $\overline {k}$ and a variety $X$ over $\overline {k}$, the field of moduli of $X$ is the subfield of $\overline {k}$ of elements fixed by field automorphisms $\gamma \in \operatorname {Gal}(\overline {k}/k)$ such that the Galois conjugate $X_{\gamma }$ is isomorphic to $X$. The field of moduli is contained in all subextensions $k\subset k'\subset \overline {k}$ such that $X$ descends to $k'$. In this paper, we extend the formalism and define the field of moduli when $k$ is not perfect. Furthermore, Dèbes and Emsalem identified a condition that ensures that a smooth curve is defined over its field of moduli, and prove that a smooth curve with a marked point is always defined over its field of moduli. Our main theorem is a generalization of these results that applies to higher-dimensional varieties, and to varieties with additional structures. In order to apply this, we study the problem of when a rational point of a variety with quotient singularities lifts to a resolution. As a consequence, we prove that a variety $X$ of dimension $d$ with a smooth marked point $p$ such that $\operatorname {Aut}(X,p)$ is finite, étale and of degree prime to $d!$ is defined over its field of moduli.

We prove that all smooth Fano threefolds in the families and are K-stable, and we also prove that smooth Fano threefolds in the family that satisfy one very explicit generality condition are K-stable.

We construct and study the moduli of stable hypersurfaces in toric orbifolds. Let X be a projective toric orbifold and $\alpha \in \operatorname{Cl}(X)$ an ample class. The moduli space is constructed as a quotient of the linear system $|\alpha|$ by $G = \operatorname{Aut}(X)$. Since the group G is non-reductive in general, we use new techniques of non-reductive geometric invariant theory. Using the A-discriminant of Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky, we prove semistability for quasismooth hypersurfaces of toric orbifolds. Further, we prove the existence of a quasi-projective moduli space of quasismooth hypersurfaces in a weighted projective space when the weighted projective space satisfies a certain condition. We also discuss how to proceed when this condition is not satisfied. We prove that the automorphism group of a quasismooth hypersurface of weighted projective space is finite excluding some low degrees.

For a real number $0<\epsilon <1/3$, we show that the anti-canonical volume of an $\epsilon $-klt Fano $3$-fold is at most $3,200/\epsilon ^4$, and the order $O(1/\epsilon ^4)$ is sharp.

We prove a decomposition theorem for the nef cone of smooth fiber products over curves, subject to the necessary condition that their Néron–Severi space decomposes. We apply it to describe the nef cone of so-called Schoen varieties, which are the higher-dimensional analogues of the Calabi–Yau threefolds constructed by Schoen. Schoen varieties give rise to Calabi–Yau pairs, and in each dimension at least three, there exist Schoen varieties with nonpolyhedral nef cone. We prove the Kawamata–Morrison–Totaro cone conjecture for the nef cones of Schoen varieties, which generalizes the work by Grassi and Morrison.