The mathematical physicists Bershadsky–Cecotti–Ooguri–Vafa (BCOV) proposed, in a seminal article from 1994, a conjecture extending genus zero mirror symmetry to higher genera. With a view towards a refined formulation of the Grothendieck–Riemann–Roch theorem, we offer a mathematical description of the BCOV conjecture at genus one. As an application of the arithmetic Riemann–Roch theorem of Gillet–Soulé and our previous results on the BCOV invariant, we establish this conjecture for Calabi–Yau hypersurfaces in projective spaces. Our contribution takes place on the B-side, and together with the work of Zinger on the A-side, it provides the first complete examples of the mirror symmetry program in higher dimensions. The case of quintic threefolds was studied by Fang–Lu–Yoshikawa. Our approach also lends itself to arithmetic considerations of the BCOV invariant, and we study a Chowla–Selberg type theorem expressing it in terms of special $\Gamma $-values for certain Calabi–Yau manifolds with complex multiplication.

We study pencils of hypersurfaces over finite fields $\mathbb {F}_q$ such that each of the $q+1$ members defined over $\mathbb {F}_q$ is smooth.

O’Grady’s generalised Franchetta conjecture (GFC) is concerned with codimension 2 algebraic cycles on universal polarised K3 surfaces. In [4], this conjecture has been studied in the Betti cohomology groups. Following a suggestion of Voisin, we investigate this problem in the Deligne-Beilinson (DB) cohomology groups. In this paper, we develop the theory of Deligne-Beilinson cohomology groups on (smooth) Deligne-Mumford stacks. Using the automorphic cohomology group and Noether-Lefschetz theory, we compute the 4th DB-cohomology group of universal oriented polarised K3 surfaces with at worst an $A_1$-singularity and show that GFC for such family holds in DB-cohomology. In particular, this confirms O’Grady’s original conjecture in DB cohomology.

Let $X$ be a connected complex manifold and let $Z$ be a compact complex subspace of $X$. Assume that ${\rm Aut}(Z)$ is strongly Jordan. In this paper, we show that the automorphism group ${\rm Aut}(X,\, Z)$ of all biholomorphisms of $X$ preserving $Z$ is strongly Jordan. A similar result has been proved by Meng et al. for a compact Kähler submanifold $Z$ of $X$ instead of a compact complex subspace $Z$ of $X$. In addition, we also show some rigidity result for free actions of large groups on complex manifolds.

In this paper, we prove a stronger form of the Bogomolov–Gieseker (BG) inequality for stable sheaves on two classes of Calabi–Yau threefolds, namely, weighted hypersurfaces inside the weighted projective spaces $\mathbb {P}(1, 1, 1, 1, 2)$ and $\mathbb {P}(1, 1, 1, 1, 4)$. Using the stronger BG inequality as a main technical tool, we construct open subsets in the spaces of Bridgeland stability conditions on these Calabi–Yau threefolds.

We prove rationality criteria over nonclosed fields of characteristic $0$ for five out of six types of geometrically rational Fano threefolds of Picard number $1$ and geometric Picard number bigger than $1$. For the last type of such threefolds, we provide a unirationality criterion and construct examples of unirational but not stably rational varieties of this type.

We study open-closed orbifold Gromov-Witten invariants of 3-dimensional Calabi-Yau smooth toric Deligne-Mumford stacks (with possibly nontrivial generic stabilisers K and semi-projective coarse moduli spaces) relative to Lagrangian branes of Aganagic-Vafa type. An Aganagic-Vafa brane in this paper is a possibly ineffective $C^\infty $ orbifold that admits a presentation $[(S^1\times \mathbb {R} ^2)/G_\tau ]$, where $G_\tau $ is a finite abelian group containing K and $G_\tau /K \cong \boldsymbol {\mu }_{\mathfrak {m}}$ is cyclic of some order $\mathfrak {m}\in \mathbb {Z} _{>0}$.

1. 1. We present foundational materials of enumerative geometry of stable holomorphic maps from bordered orbifold Riemann surfaces to a 3-dimensional Calabi-Yau smooth toric DM stack $\mathcal {X}$ with boundaries mapped into an Aganagic-Vafa brane $\mathcal {L}$. All genus open-closed Gromov-Witten invariants of $\mathcal {X}$ relative to $\mathcal {L}$ are defined by torus localisation and depend on the choice of a framing $f\in \mathbb {Z} $ of $\mathcal {L}$.

2. 2. We provide another definition of all genus open-closed Gromov-Witten invariants in (1) based on algebraic relative orbifold Gromov-Witten theory, which agrees with the definition in (1) up to a sign depending on the choice of orientation on moduli of maps in (1). This generalises the definition in [57] for smooth toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds and specifies an orientation on moduli of maps in (1) compatible with the canonical orientation on moduli of relative stable maps determined by the complex structure.

3. 3. When $\mathcal {X}$ is a toric Calabi-Yau 3-orbifold (i.e., when the generic stabiliser K is trivial), so that $G_\tau =\boldsymbol {\mu }_{\mathfrak {m}}$, we define generating functions $F_{g,h}^{\mathcal {X},(\mathcal {L},f)}$ of open-closed Gromov-Witten invariants of arbitrary genus g and number h of boundary circles; it takes values in $H^*_{ {\mathrm {CR}} }(\mathcal {B} \boldsymbol {\mu }_{\mathfrak {m}}; \mathbb {C} )^{\otimes h}$, where $H^*_{ {\mathrm {CR}} }(\mathcal {B} \boldsymbol {\mu }_{\mathfrak {m}}; \mathbb {C} )\cong \mathbb {C} ^{\mathfrak {m}}$ is the Chen-Ruan orbifold cohomology of the classifying space $\mathcal {B} \boldsymbol {\mu }_{\mathfrak {m}}$ of $\boldsymbol {\mu }_{\mathfrak {m}}$.

4. 4. We prove an open mirror theorem that relates the generating function $F_{0,1}^{\mathcal {X},(\mathcal {L},f)}$ of orbifold disk invariants to Abel-Jacobi maps of the mirror curve of $\mathcal {X}$. This generalises a conjecture by Aganagic-Vafa [6] and Aganagic-Klemm-Vafa [5] (proved in full generality by the first and the second authors in [33]) on the disk potential of a smooth semi-projective toric Calabi-Yau 3-fold.

We propose a conjectural list of Fano manifolds of Picard number $1$ with pseudoeffective normalised tangent bundles, which we prove in various situations by relating it to the complete divisibility conjecture of Francesco Russo and Fyodor L. Zak on varieties with small codegree. Furthermore, the pseudoeffective thresholds and, hence, the pseudoeffective cones of the projectivised tangent bundles of rational homogeneous spaces of Picard number $1$ are explicitly determined by studying the total dual variety of minimal rational tangents (VMRTs) and the geometry of stratified Mukai flops. As a by-product, we obtain sharp vanishing theorems on the global twisted symmetric holomorphic vector fields on rational homogeneous spaces of Picard number $1$.

We show that there is an extra grading in the mirror duality discovered in the early nineties by Greene–Plesser and Berglund–Hübsch. Their duality matches cohomology classes of two Calabi–Yau orbifolds. When both orbifolds are equipped with an automorphism s of the same order, our mirror duality involves the weight of the action of $s^*$ on cohomology. In particular it matches the respective s-fixed loci, which are not Calabi–Yau in general. When applied to K3 surfaces with nonsymplectic automorphism s of odd prime order, this provides a proof that Berglund–Hübsch mirror symmetry implies K3 lattice mirror symmetry replacing earlier case-by-case treatments.

We call a packing of hyperspheres in n dimensions an Apollonian sphere packing if the spheres intersect tangentially or not at all; they fill the n-dimensional Euclidean space; and every sphere in the packing is a member of a cluster of $n+2$ mutually tangent spheres (and a few more properties described herein). In this paper, we describe an Apollonian packing in eight dimensions that naturally arises from the study of generic nodal Enriques surfaces. The $E_7$, $E_8$ and Reye lattices play roles. We use the packing to generate an Apollonian packing in nine dimensions, and a cross section in seven dimensions that is weakly Apollonian. Maxwell described all three packings but seemed unaware that they are Apollonian. The packings in seven and eight dimensions are different than those found in an earlier paper. In passing, we give a sufficient condition for a Coxeter graph to generate mutually tangent spheres and use this to identify an Apollonian sphere packing in three dimensions that is not the Soddy sphere packing.

Let $\pi \colon \mathcal {X}\to B$ be a family whose general fibre $X_b$ is a $(d_1,\,\ldots,\,d_a)$-polarization on a general abelian variety, where $1\leq d_i\leq 2$, $i=1,\,\ldots,\,a$ and $a\geq 4$. We show that the fibres are in the same birational class if all the $(m,\,0)$-forms on $X_b$ are liftable to $(m,\,0)$-forms on $\mathcal {X}$, where $m=1$ and $m=a-1$. Actually, we show a general criteria to establish whether the fibres of certain families belong to the same birational class.

We provide a complete classification of the singularities of cluster algebras of finite type with trivial coefficients. Alongside, we develop a constructive desingularization of these singularities via blowups in regular centers over fields of arbitrary characteristic. Furthermore, from the same perspective, we study a family of cluster algebras which are not of finite type and which arise from a star shaped quiver.

We develop a general approach to prove K-stability of Fano varieties. The new theory is used to (a) prove the existence of Kähler-Einstein metrics on all smooth Fano hypersurfaces of Fano index two, (b) compute the stability thresholds for hypersurfaces at generalised Eckardt points and for cubic surfaces at all points, and (c) provide a new algebraic proof of Tian’s criterion for K-stability, amongst other applications.

We study triple covers of K3 surfaces, following Miranda (1985, American Journal of Mathematics 107, 1123–1158). We relate the geometry of the covering surfaces with the properties of both the branch locus and the Tschirnhausen vector bundle. In particular, we classify Galois triple covers computing numerical invariants of the covering surface and of its minimal model. We provide examples of non-Galois triple covers, both in the case in which the Tschirnhausen bundle splits into the sum of two line bundles and in the case in which it is an indecomposable rank 2 vector bundle. We provide a criterion to construct rank 2 vector bundles on a K3 surface S which determine a non-Galois triple cover of S. The examples presented are in any admissible Kodaira dimension, and in particular, we provide the constructions of irregular covers of K3 surfaces and of surfaces with geometrical genus equal to 2 whose transcendental Hodge structure splits in the sum of two Hodge structures of K3 type.

Let $f: X \to B$ be a relatively minimal fibration of maximal Albanese dimension from a variety X of dimension $n \ge 2$ to a curve B defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. We prove that $K_{X/B}^n \ge 2n! \chi _f$. It verifies a conjectural formulation of Barja in [2]. Via the strategy outlined in [4], it also leads to a new proof of the Severi inequality for varieties of maximal Albanese dimension. Moreover, when the equality holds and $\chi _f> 0$, we prove that the general fibre F of f has to satisfy the Severi equality that $K_F^{n-1} = 2(n-1)! \chi (F, \omega _F)$. We also prove some sharper results of the same type under extra assumptions.

We propose two systems of “intrinsic” weights for counting such curves. In both cases the result acquires an exceptionally strong invariance property: it does not depend on the choice of a surface. One of our counts includes all divisor classes of canonical degree 2 and gives in total 30. The other one excludes the class $-2K$, but adds up the results of counting for a pair of real structures that differ by Bertini involution. This count gives 96.

We build on the recent techniques of Codogni and Patakfalvi (2021, Inventiones Mathematicae 223, 811–894), which were used to establish theorems about semi-positivity of the Chow Mumford line bundles for families of $\mathrm {K}$-semistable Fano varieties. Here, we apply the Central Limit Theorem to ascertain the asymptotic probabilistic nature of the vertices of the Harder and Narasimhan polygons. As an application of our main result, we use it to establish a filtered vector space analogue of the main technical result of Codogni and Patakfalvi (2021, Inventiones Mathematicae 223, 811–894). In doing so, we expand upon the slope stability theory, for filtered vector spaces, that was initiated by Faltings and Wüstholz (1994, Inventiones Mathematicae 116, 109–138). One source of inspiration for our abstract study of Harder and Narasimhan data, which is a concept that we define here, is the lattice reduction methods of Grayson (1984, Commentarii Mathematici Helvetic 59, 600–634). Another is the work of Faltings and Wüstholz (1994, Inventiones Mathematicae 116, 109–138), and Evertse and Ferretti (2013, Annals of Mathematics 177, 513–590), which is within the context of Diophantine approximation for projective varieties.

Let $\Gamma $ be a finite set, and $X\ni x$ a fixed kawamata log terminal germ. For any lc germ $(X\ni x,B:=\sum _{i} b_iB_i)$, such that $b_i\in \Gamma $, Nakamura’s conjecture, which is equivalent to the ascending chain condition conjecture for minimal log discrepancies for fixed germs, predicts that there always exists a prime divisor E over $X\ni x$, such that $a(E,X,B)=\mathrm {mld}(X\ni x,B)$, and $a(E,X,0)$ is bounded from above. We extend Nakamura’s conjecture to the setting that $X\ni x$ is not necessarily fixed and $\Gamma $ satisfies the descending chain condition, and show it holds for surfaces. We also find some sufficient conditions for the boundedness of $a(E,X,0)$ for any such E.

A conic bundle is a contraction $X\to Z$ between normal varieties of relative dimension $1$ such that $-K_X$ is relatively ample. We prove a conjecture of Shokurov that predicts that if $X\to Z$ is a conic bundle such that X has canonical singularities and Z is $\mathbb {Q}$-Gorenstein, then Z is always $\frac {1}{2}$-lc, and the multiplicities of the fibres over codimension $1$ points are bounded from above by $2$. Both values $\frac {1}{2}$ and $2$ are sharp. This is achieved by solving a more general conjecture of Shokurov on singularities of bases of lc-trivial fibrations of relative dimension $1$ with canonical singularities.

We prove that if X is a complex projective K3 surface and $g>0$, then there exist infinitely many families of curves of geometric genus g on X with maximal, i.e., g-dimensional, variation in moduli. In particular, every K3 surface contains a curve of geometric genus 1 which moves in a nonisotrivial family. This implies a conjecture of Huybrechts on constant cycle curves and gives an algebro-geometric proof of a theorem of Kobayashi that a K3 surface has no global symmetric differential forms.