Conic bundles that are not birational to numerical Calabi--Yau pairs

Let $X$ be a general conic bundle over the projective plane with branch curve of degree at least 19. We prove that there is no normal projective variety $Y$ that is birational to $X$ and such that some multiple of its anticanonical divisor is effective. We also give such examples for 2-dimensional conic bundles defined over a number field.

ON RAMIFIED COVERS OF THE PROJECTIVE PLANE I: INTERPRETING SEGRE'S THEORY (WITH AN APPENDIX BY EUGENII SHUSTIN)

We study ramified covers of the projective plane ℙ2. Given a smooth surface S in ℙN and a generic enough projection ℙN → ℙ2, we get a cover π: S → ℙ2, which is ramified over a plane curve B. The curve B is usually singular, but is classically known to have only cusps and nodes as singularities for a generic projection. The main question that arises is with respect to the geometry of branch curves; i.e. how can one distinguish a branch curve from a non-branch curve with the same numerical invariants? For example, a plane sextic with six cusps is known to be a branch curve of a generic projection iff its six cusps lie on a conic curve, i.e. form a special 0-cycle on the plane. The classical work of Beniamino Segre gives a complete answer to the second question in the case when S is a smooth surface in ℙ3. We give an interpretation of the work of Segre in terms of relation between Picard and Chow groups of 0-cycles on a singular plane curve B. In addition, the appendix written by E. Shustin shows the existence of new Zariski pairs.

THE FUNDAMENTAL GROUP OF THE GALOIS COVER OF HIRZEBRUCH SURFACE F1(2, 2)

This paper is the second in a series of papers concerning Hirzebruch surfaces. In the first paper in this series, the fundamental group of Galois covers of Hirzebruch surfaces Fk(a, b), where a, b are relatively prime, was shown to be trivial. For the general case, the conjecture stated that the fundamental group is [Formula: see text] where c = gcd (a, b) and n = 2ab + kb2. In this paper, we degenerate the Hirzebruch surface F1(2, 2), compute the braid monodromy factorization of the branch curve in ℂ2, and verify that, in this case, the conjecture holds: the fundamental group of the Galois cover of F1(2, 2) with respect to a generic projection is isomorphic to [Formula: see text].

SEVERI VARIETIES AND BRANCH CURVES OF ABELIAN SURFACES OF TYPE (1, 3)

A polarized abelian surface (A, L) of type (1, 3) induces a 6:1 covering of A onto the projective plane with branch curve, a plane curve B of degree 18. The main result of the paper is that for a general abelian surface of type (1, 3), the curve B is irreducible and reduced and admits 72 cusps, 36 nodes or tacnodes, each tacnode counting as 2 nodes, 72 flexes and 36 bitangents. The main idea of the proof is that for a general (A, L) the discriminant curve in the linear system |L| coincides with the closure of the Severi variety of curves in |L| admitting a node and is dual to the curve B in the sense of projective geometry.