On minimal log discrepancies and kollár components

In this article, we prove a local implication of boundedness of Fano varieties. More precisely, we prove that $d$ -dimensional $a$ -log canonical singularities with standard coefficients, which admit an $\epsilon$ -plt blow-up, have minimal log discrepancies belonging to a finite set which only depends on $d,\,a$ and $\epsilon$ . This result gives a natural geometric stratification of the possible mld's in a fixed dimension by finite sets. As an application, we prove the ascending chain condition for minimal log discrepancies of exceptional singularities. We also introduce an invariant for klt singularities related to the total discrepancy of Kollár components.

Maximally mutable Laurent polynomials

We introduce a class of Laurent polynomials, called maximally mutable Laurent polynomials (MMLPs), which we believe correspond under mirror symmetry to Fano varieties. A subclass of these, called rigid, are expected to correspond to Fano varieties with terminal locally toric singularities. We prove that there are exactly 10 mutation classes of rigid MMLPs in two variables; under mirror symmetry these correspond one-to-one with the 10 deformation classes of smooth del Pezzo surfaces. Furthermore, we give a computer-assisted classification of rigid MMLPs in three variables with reflexive Newton polytope; under mirror symmetry these correspond one-to-one with the 98 deformation classes of three-dimensional Fano manifolds with very ample anti-canonical bundle. We compare our proposal to previous approaches to constructing mirrors to Fano varieties, and explain why mirror symmetry in higher dimensions necessarily involves varieties with terminal singularities. Every known mirror to a Fano manifold, of any dimension, is a rigid MMLP.