Let $f\colon X\to B$ be a semistable fibration where X is a smooth variety of dimension $n\geq 2$ and B is a smooth curve. We give the structure theorem for the local system of the relative $1$-forms and of the relative top forms. This gives a neat interpretation of the second Fujita decomposition of $f_*\omega _{X/B}$. We apply our interpretation to show the existence, up to base change, of higher irrational pencils and on the finiteness of the associated monodromy representations under natural Castelnuovo-type hypothesis on local subsystems. Finally, we give a criterion to have that X is not of Albanese general type if $B=\mathbb {P}^1$.

A protagonist here is a new-type invariant for type II degenerations of K3 surfaces, which is explicit piecewise linear convex function from the interval with at most $18$ nonlinear points. Forgetting its actual function behavior, it also classifies the type II degenerations into several combinatorial types, depending on the type of root lattices as appeared in classical examples.

From differential geometric viewpoint, the function is obtained as the density function of the limit measure on the collapsing hyper-Kähler metrics to conjectural segments, as in [HSZ19]. On the way, we also reconstruct a moduli compactification of elliptic K3 surfaces by [AB19], [ABE20], [Brun15] in a more elementary manner, and analyze the cusps more explicitly.

We also interpret the glued hyper-Kähler fibration of [HSVZ18] as a special case from our viewpoint, and discuss other cases, and possible relations with Landau–Ginzburg models in the mirror symmetry context.

We show that the K-moduli spaces of log Fano pairs $\left(\mathbb {P}^1\times \mathbb {P}^1, cC\right)$, where C is a $(4,4)$ curve and their wall crossings coincide with the VGIT quotients of $(2,4)$, complete intersection curves in $\mathbb {P}^3$. This, together with recent results by Laza and O’Grady, implies that these K-moduli spaces form a natural interpolation between the GIT moduli space of $(4,4)$ curves on $\mathbb {P}^1\times \mathbb {P}^1$ and the Baily–Borel compactification of moduli of quartic hyperelliptic K3 surfaces.

We prove the existence of a smoothing for a toroidal crossing space under mild assumptions. By linking log structures with infinitesimal deformations, the result receives a very compact form for normal crossing spaces. The main approach is to study log structures that are incoherent on a subspace of codimension 2 and prove a Hodge–de Rham degeneration theorem for such log spaces that also settles a conjecture by Danilov. We show that the homotopy equivalence between Maurer–Cartan solutions and deformations combined with Batalin–Vilkovisky theory can be used to obtain smoothings. The construction of new Calabi–Yau and Fano manifolds as well as Frobenius manifold structures on moduli spaces provides potential applications.

We prove that there are finitely many families, up to isomorphism in codimension one, of elliptic Calabi–Yau manifolds $Y\rightarrow X$ with a rational section, provided that $\dim (Y)\leq 5$ and $Y$ is not of product type. As a consequence, we obtain that there are finitely many possibilities for the Hodge diamond of such manifolds. The result follows from log birational boundedness of Kawamata log terminal pairs $(X, \Delta )$ with $K_X+\Delta$ numerically trivial and not of product type, in dimension at most four.

Let π : X → C be a fibration with integral fibers over a curve C and consider a polarization H on the surface X. Let E be a stable vector bundle of rank 2 on C. We prove that the pullback π*(E) is a H-stable bundle over X. This result allows us to relate the corresponding moduli spaces of stable bundles $${{\mathcal M}_C}(2,d)$$ and $${{\mathcal M}_{X,H}}(2,df,0)$$ through an injective morphism. We study the induced morphism at the level of Brill–Noether loci to construct examples of Brill–Noether loci on fibered surfaces. Results concerning the emptiness of Brill–Noether loci follow as a consequence of a generalization of Clifford’s Theorem for rank two bundles on surfaces.

We explain how to form a novel dataset of Calabi–Yau threefolds via the Gross–Siebert algorithm. We expect these to degenerate to Calabi–Yau toric hypersurfaces with certain Gorenstein (not necessarily isolated) singularities. In particular, we explain how to ‘smooth the boundary’ of a class of four-dimensional reflexive polytopes to obtain polarised tropical manifolds. We compute topological invariants of a compactified torus fibration over each such tropical manifold, expected to be homeomorphic to the general fibre of the Gross–Siebert smoothing. We consider a family of examples related to products of reflexive polygons. Among these we find $14$ topological types with $b_2=1$ that do not appear in existing lists of known rank-one Calabi–Yau threefolds.

We construct some new deformation families of four-dimensional Fano manifolds of index one in some known classes of Gorenstein formats. These families have explicit descriptions in terms of equations, defining their image under the anticanonical embedding in some weighted projective space. They also have relatively smaller anticanonical degree than most other known families of smooth Fano 4-folds.

Let K be a field of arbitrary characteristic, $${\cal A}$$ be a commutative K-algebra which is a domain of essentially finite type (e.g., the algebra of functions on an irreducible affine algebraic variety), $${a_r}$$ be its Jacobian ideal, and $${\cal D}\left( {\cal A} \right)$$ be the algebra of differential operators on the algebra $${\cal A}$$. The aim of the paper is to give a simplicity criterion for the algebra $${\cal D}\left( {\cal A} \right)$$: the algebra $${\cal D}\left( {\cal A} \right)$$ is simple iff $${\cal D}\left( {\cal A} \right)a_r^i{\cal D}\left( {\cal A} \right) = {\cal D}\left( {\cal A} \right)$$ for all i ≥ 1 provided the field K is a perfect field. Furthermore, a simplicity criterion is given for the algebra $${\cal D}\left( R \right)$$ of differential operators on an arbitrary commutative algebra R over an arbitrary field. This gives an answer to an old question to find a simplicity criterion for algebras of differential operators.

We give the first examples of derived equivalences between varieties defined over non-closed fields where one has a rational point and the other does not. We begin with torsors over Jacobians of curves over $\mathbb {Q}$ and $\mathbb {F}_q(t)$, and conclude with a pair of hyperkähler 4-folds over $\mathbb {Q}$. The latter is independently interesting as a new example of a transcendental Brauer–Manin obstruction to the Hasse principle. The source code for the various computations is supplied as supplementary material with the online version of this article.

The general position hypothesis needs strengthening.

We describe a compactification by KSBA stable pairs of the five-dimensional moduli space of K3 surfaces with a purely non-symplectic automorphism of order four and $U(2)\oplus D_4^{\oplus 2}$ lattice polarization. These K3 surfaces can be realized as the minimal resolution of the double cover of $\mathbb {P}^{1}\times \mathbb {P}^{1}$ branched along a specific $(4,\,4)$ curve. We show that, up to a finite group action, this stable pairs compactification is isomorphic to Kirwan's partial desingularization of the GIT quotient $(\mathbb {P}^{1})^{8}{/\!/}\mathrm {SL}_2$ with the symmetric linearization.

We give applications of integral canonical models of orthogonal Shimura varieties and the Kuga-Satake morphism to the arithmetic of $K3$ surfaces over finite fields. We prove that every $K3$ surface of finite height over a finite field admits a characteristic $0$ lifting whose generic fibre is a $K3$ surface with complex multiplication. Combined with the results of Mukai and Buskin, we prove the Tate conjecture for the square of a $K3$ surface over a finite field. To obtain these results, we construct an analogue of Kisin’s algebraic group for a $K3$ surface of finite height and construct characteristic $0$ liftings of the $K3$ surface preserving the action of tori in the algebraic group. We obtain these results for $K3$ surfaces over finite fields of any characteristics, including those of characteristic $2$ or $3$.

Building on work of Segre and Kollár on cubic hypersurfaces, we construct over imperfect fields of characteristic $p\geq 3$ particular hypersurfaces of degree p, which show that geometrically rational schemes that are regular and whose rational points are Zariski dense are not necessarily unirational. A likewise behavior holds for certain cubic surfaces in characteristic $p=2$.

We prove that the Kodaira dimension of the n-fold universal family of lattice-polarised holomorphic symplectic varieties with dominant and generically finite period map stabilises to the moduli number when n is sufficiently large. Then we study the transition of Kodaira dimension explicitly, from negative to nonnegative, for known explicit families of polarised symplectic varieties. In particular, we determine the exact transition point in the Beauville–Donagi and Debarre–Voisin cases, where the Borcherds $\Phi _{12}$ form plays a crucial role.

We prove a conjecture of Maulik, Pandharipande and Thomas expressing the Gromov–Witten invariants of K3 surfaces for divisibility 2 curve classes in all genera in terms of weakly holomorphic quasi-modular forms of level 2. Then we establish the holomorphic anomaly equation in divisibility 2 in all genera. Our approach involves a refined boundary induction, relying on the top tautological group of the moduli space of smooth curves, together with a degeneration formula for the reduced virtual fundamental class with imprimitive curve classes. We use double ramification relations with target variety as a new tool to prove the initial condition. The relationship between the holomorphic anomaly equation for higher divisibility and the conjectural multiple cover formula of Oberdieck and Pandharipande is discussed in detail and illustrated with several examples.

In this paper, we develop the theory of singular Hermitian metrics on vector bundles. As an application, we give a structure theorem of a projective manifold X with pseudo-effective tangent bundle; X admits a smooth fibration $X \to Y$ to a flat projective manifold Y such that its general fibre is rationally connected. Moreover, by applying this structure theorem, we classify all the minimal surfaces with pseudo-effective tangent bundle and study general nonminimal surfaces, which provide examples of (possibly singular) positively curved tangent bundles.

We conjecture a Verlinde type formula for the moduli space of Higgs sheaves on a surface with a holomorphic 2-form. The conjecture specializes to a Verlinde formula for the moduli space of sheaves. Our formula interpolates between K-theoretic Donaldson invariants studied by Göttsche and Nakajima-Yoshioka and K-theoretic Vafa-Witten invariants introduced by Thomas and also studied by Göttsche and Kool. We verify our conjectures in many examples (for example, on K3 surfaces).

We exhibit a large class of quiver moduli spaces, which are Fano varieties, by studying line bundles on quiver moduli and their global sections in general, and work out several classes of examples, comprising moduli spaces of point configurations, Kronecker moduli, and toric quiver moduli.

We prove that the number of MMP-series of a smooth projective threefold of positive Kodaira dimension and of Picard number equal to three is at most two.