Questions tagged [algebraic-surfaces]

An algebraic surface is an algebraic variety of dimension two. In the case of geometry over the field of complex numbers, an algebraic surface has complex dimension two (as a complex manifold, when it is non-singular) and so of dimension four as a smooth manifold.

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Surfaces in $\mathbb{P}^3$ with isolated singularities

It is classically known that every smooth, complex, projective surface $S$ is birational to a surface $S' \subset \mathbb{P}^3$ having only ordinary singularities, i.e. a curve $C$ of double points, ...
Francesco Polizzi's user avatar
37 votes
1 answer
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When do 27 lines lie on a cubic surface?

Consider $27$ (pairwise distinct!) lines in $\mathbb{P}^3$ whose intersection graph is that expected¹ of the $27$ lines on a smooth cubic surface. Question: Is there a simple necessary and sufficient ...
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
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30 votes
1 answer
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Enriques surfaces over $\mathbb Z$

Does there exist a smooth proper morphism $E \to \operatorname{Spec} \mathbb Z$ whose fibers are Enriques surfaces? By a theorem of, independently, Fontaine and Abrashkin, combined with the Enriques-...
Will Sawin's user avatar
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27 votes
5 answers
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blowing up, -1 curves, effective and ample divisors

Lets say we're on a smooth surface, and we blow up at a point. Is there a simple explicit computation that shows to me the fact that the exceptional divisor E has self intersection -1 ? I don't ...
fellow's user avatar
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27 votes
1 answer
1k views

Analogies between classical geometry on complex surfaces and Arakelov geometry

This is my first question on this wonderful site. The following question about Arakelov geometry is gonna be quite long and wide; to be clear one of that kind of questions that are usually ignored. ...
user100660's user avatar
25 votes
4 answers
3k views

Abundance for algebraic surfaces

I am currently teaching a course in algebraic geometry where one of the aims is to give an overview of the Enriques-Kodaira classification of surfaces. I am trying to throw in some modern aspects so I ...
Torsten Ekedahl's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
1k views

Hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes and Del-Pezzo surfaces

Added. In the following link there is a proof of the observation made in this question: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5546138/DelpezzoCoxeter.pdf I would like to find a reference for a beautiful ...
Dmitri Panov's user avatar
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23 votes
1 answer
678 views

Del Pezzo surfaces and homotopy groups of spheres

A (complex) del Pezzo surface is a smooth projective complex surface with ample anticanonical line bundle. Such surface has a degree defined as the self intersection of the canonical divisor. It is ...
user25309's user avatar
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22 votes
0 answers
741 views

bound on the genus of a fiber of the Albanese map of a surface with $h^1({\mathcal O})=1$?

This is maybe more an open problem than a question, since I have seriously thought about it and asked several people working on algebraic surfaces with no success. I hope somebody here can ...
rita's user avatar
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20 votes
3 answers
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Vector bundles on $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1$

I have a question about vector bundles on the algebraic surface $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1$. My motivation is the splitting theorem of Grothendieck, which says that every algebraic vector bundle ...
user5395's user avatar
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20 votes
2 answers
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When does the blow-up of $CP^2$ at N points embed in $CP^4$?

Write $X_N$ for this blow up. Place the N points in 'general position' as needed. Then $X_6$ embeds in $CP^2$ as a smooth cubic surface. (See, eg, Griffiths and Harris.) But there is no other $N$...
Richard Montgomery's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
4k views

what is the cyclic cover trick?

What do people mean by the "cyclic cover trick"? I have found this expression a couple of times with no complete explanation, both talking about curves and surfaces...
IMeasy's user avatar
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16 votes
4 answers
1k views

K3 surfaces with good reduction away from finitely many places

Let S be a finite set of primes in Q. What, if anything, do we know about K3 surfaces over Q with good reduction away from S? (To be more precise, I suppose I mean schemes over Spec Z[1/S] whose ...
JSE's user avatar
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16 votes
0 answers
297 views

A question on surfaces in $\mathbb{P}^4$

On surfaces in $\mathbb P^4$,Ellingsrud and Peskine has proved that There exists an integer $d_0$ such that for any integer $d>d_0$,any smooth surface of degree $d$ in $\mathbb P^4$ is of ...
Jiabin Du's user avatar
  • 271
15 votes
2 answers
2k views

Surfaces containing curves of arbitrarily negative self-intersection

Olivier Wittenberg and I are curious about the following : Let $S$ be a smooth projective complex surface. Are the self-intersection numbers of integral curves on $S$ always bounded below ? Or can $S$...
Olivier Benoist's user avatar
15 votes
6 answers
3k views

Curves with negative self intersection in the product of two curves

I wonder if the following is known: Are there two compact curves C1 and C2 of genus>1 defined over complex numbers, such that their product contains infinite number of irreducible curves of negative ...
Dmitri Panov's user avatar
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15 votes
3 answers
2k views

A nontrivial surface on which any two curves intersect

One interesting property of the projective plane is that any two plane curves intersect. (More generally, if $V$ and $W$ are subvarieties of any projective space, and codim $V$ + codim $W \geq 0$, ...
Charles Staats's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is the set of surfaces over Spec Z with ample canonical sheaf empty

Main question. Does there exist a smooth projective morphism $X\to$ Spec $\mathbf Z$ of relative dimension two such that the canonical sheaf $\omega_{X_{\mathbf Q}}$ of the generic fibre $X_{\mathbf Q}...
Ariyan Javanpeykar's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
3k views

Rational curves on varieties of general type

Let $S$ be a complex surface of general type. Are there infinitely many smooth rational curves on $S$? And more general, what if $V$ is a variety of general type?
Tong's user avatar
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14 votes
1 answer
351 views

Are any of these complex surfaces ever projective?

Let $C$ and $T$ be compact connected Riemann surfaces (or: smooth projective connected curves over $\mathbb{C}$) of genus at least two and let $X:=C\times T$. Let $(c,t)$ be a point of $X$, and let $...
Ariyan Javanpeykar's user avatar
14 votes
0 answers
2k views

Ample divisors on projective surfaces

Question: If $X$ is a projective surface and $U$ is an open affine subset of $X$, then is it true that $X \setminus U$ is the support of an (effective) ample divisor on $X$? Background: I was reading ...
pinaki's user avatar
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13 votes
4 answers
1k views

Algebraic surfaces and their (intrinsic) geometry

Recently I began to consider algebraic surfaces, that is, the zero set of a polynomial in 3 (or more variables). My algebraic geometry background is poor, and I'm more used to differential and ...
Dror Atariah's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
238 views

Curves on rational surfaces and Lang's conjecture for M_g

There are a group of related conjectures associated to Lang's name - for this question I'll consider only the weakest one, namely that rational curves in a projective variety of general type are not ...
dhy's user avatar
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11 votes
3 answers
2k views

Nonprojective Surface

Let k be an algebraically closed field. It's well known that every complete curve, period, is projective. Also, that every smooth surface is, and that there are smooth 3-folds which are not, and ...
Charles Siegel's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
2k views

level sets of multivariate polynomials

Let $p:\mathbb R^n \rightarrow \mathbb R$ be a polynomial of degree at most $d$. Restrict $p$ to the unit cube $Q=[0,1]^n\subset\mathbb R^n$. We assume that $p$ has mean value zero on the unit cube $Q$...
ioannis.parissis's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

Motivation for birational geometry

I'm interested in how do people that work in birational geometry view their field — specifically, what are the kinds of geometric questions (as opposed to commutative-algebraic questions) that ...
roymend's user avatar
  • 221
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Restriction of the Picard group of a surface to a curve

In a paper by Griffiths and Harris on the Noether-Lefschetz theorem, they use the following fact which they don't comment as if it is obvious: For a general (smooth) surface $S$ in $\mathbb{P}^3$ ...
kostya's user avatar
  • 111
11 votes
1 answer
362 views

Euler Characteristic of Real Algebraic Surfaces

Given a (compact if needed) real smooth surface $V(f)$ defined by $f\in \mathbb{R}[X,Y,Z]$, in particular it is oriented. Is there a formula which gives the Euler character of $V(f)$ ? Thanks.
sphere's user avatar
  • 413
11 votes
1 answer
450 views

A property of varieties between unirational and retract rational

EDIT: The vague question Q1 below is partially answered, while the concrete question Q2 seems to be still open. Let $V$ be a geometrically integral variety over a field $K$. I consider the following ...
Arno Fehm's user avatar
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11 votes
0 answers
353 views

Moduli stacks of algebraic surfaces—obstructions to existence?

The moduli stack $\mathcal{M}_g$ of genus $g$ curves is one of the deepest objects in mathematics, so of course you wonder to what extent you can construct an (Artin?) stack parametrising algebraic ...
Pulcinella's user avatar
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11 votes
0 answers
300 views

Surfaces with $q=2$ and generically finite Albanese map

I have a family of surfaces of general type $S$ with $q(S)=2$, and such that the Albanese map $$\alpha \colon S \longrightarrow A:=\mathrm{Alb}(S)$$ is generically finite of degree $n$. By a result of ...
Francesco Polizzi's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
498 views

Singular curve on an abelian surface

Let $C_2$ be a smooth genus $2$ curve and $J(C_2)$ its Jacobian. It is well known that the blow-up of $J(C_2)$ at the origin $o$ is isomorphic to the second symmetric product $\textrm{Sym}^2(C_2)$, ...
Francesco Polizzi's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
813 views

Uniformization of Kodaira fibered surfaces

Consider a Kodaira fibration. i.e. a smooth non-isotrivial fibration $X\rightarrow C$ with $X$ a smooth complex surface and $C$ a smooth complex curve, such that both the genus of $C$ and genus of the ...
Darius Math's user avatar
  • 2,171
10 votes
1 answer
414 views

A diffeomorphism of complex surfaces mapping subvarieties to subvarieties

Let $X$ and $Y$ be smooth projective complex surfaces. If a diffeomorphism from $X$ to $Y$ maps subvarieties to subvarieties does it have to be holomorphic or antiholomorphic? Can we at least verify ...
user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
899 views

Automorphisms of del Pezzo surfaces

Let $S$ be a del Pezzo surface of degree six over $\mathbb{C}$. Then $S$ is the blow-up of $\mathbb{P}^2$ in three general points $p_1,p_2,p_3$. Is it true that its automorphism group is $((\mathbb{C}...
user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
2k views

When is the canonical divisor of an algebraic surface smooth?

Is there some condition on a complex algebraic surface that implies it has a smooth canonical divisor? I am searching for the sharpest possible condition, but sufficient criteria would be nice as ...
James O's user avatar
  • 445
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

A proper smooth surface is projective

My question is a reference request for the following fact: if $k$ is a field and $X$ a proper smooth surface over $k$, then $X \rightarrow \mathrm{Spec}\, k$ is projective. Where is this well-known ...
Lisa S.'s user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
739 views

Are there non-projective normal surfaces which are rational?

Every non-singular complete surface is projective. On the other hand, there are non-projective complete surfaces (see e.g. Excercise II.7.13 of Hartshorne) - and there are such examples where the ...
pinaki's user avatar
  • 4,962
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

Finite morphisms to projective space

Let $X$ be a projective variety of dimension n. Then there exists a finite surjective morphism $X \to \mathbf P^n$. Let $d$ be the minimal degree of such a finite surjective morphism. Let $d^\prime ...
Edgar JH's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
749 views

Pathologies of analytic (non-algebraic) varieties.

Note: By an "analytic non-algebraic" surface below I mean a two dimensional compact analytic variety $X$ (over $\mathbb{C}$) which is not an algebraic variety. A property of Nagata's example (see ...
pinaki's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
487 views

Pull-back of an irreducible ample divisor via an isogeny of abelian varieties

In the (wonderful) book by C. Birkenhake and H. Lange Complex Abelian Varieties we can find the following result, see Corollary 4.3.4 page 77. It is stated in any dimension $g \geq 2$, but let us ...
Francesco Polizzi's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
324 views

Does $X\times Y$ have the resolution property if both $X$ and $Y$ have?

We say a complex manifold $X$ has the resolution property if every coherent sheaf $\mathcal{M}$ on $X$ admits a surjection $\mathcal{E}\twoheadrightarrow \mathcal{M}$ by some finite rank locally free ...
Zhaoting Wei's user avatar
  • 8,637
9 votes
1 answer
365 views

Dimension-specific phenomena in algebraic geometry

In differential topology, there are some funny phenomena that can only happen in dimension 4. For example, only in dimension 4 you can have a closed topological manifold admitting infinitely many ...
user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
228 views

How many characteristics is a random surface unirational in?

Suppose I have a surface $X$ defined over $\mathbb{Z}$. I am interested in the set $S_X$ of primes $p$ such that $X_{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}$ is unirational. If I choose a "random" surface ...
Ben C's user avatar
  • 2,889
8 votes
2 answers
837 views

Is the square of a curve minus its diagonal affine?

Let $X$ be a smooth irreducible projective algebraic curve of genus $g\geq 1$ and $S=X^2$ the surface one obtains as the cartesian product of $X$ with itself. Let $\Delta$ be the diagonal in $S$, that ...
Victor Rotger's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Seeking concrete examples of "generic" elliptic fibrations of K3 surfaces

For me a K3 surface will be a smooth complex projective variety of dimension 2 that is simply-connected and has trivial canonical bundle. Given a K3 surface $X$, an elliptic fibration $\pi \colon X \...
John Baez's user avatar
  • 21k
8 votes
3 answers
3k views

Cone of curves and Mori theorem for algebraic surfaces

In describing part of the geometry of the cone of curves for an algebraic surface $S$, we need to find $(-1)$ curves within $S$. Once we've done that, then we can say that the "negative" ...
Csar Lozano Huerta's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
722 views

Why can you deform singularities in two dimensions but not in higher dimensions?

I've been trying to read this paper to understand deformations of surface quotient singularities. I'm particularly interested in when one can deform certain cyclic quotient singularities into other ...
Dori Bejleri's user avatar
  • 2,880
8 votes
1 answer
2k views

Contracting a curve of negative self-intersection on a surface

It is easy to show using birational factorization that the only curves on a surface which can be contracted to get an algebraic, smooth surface are smooth $(-1)$-curves. Furthermore, I know of ...
Philip Engel's user avatar
  • 1,493
8 votes
1 answer
371 views

Is the Tate conjecture known for etale covers of products of curves

Let $X$ be a (smooth projective geometrically connected) surface over a finitely generated field $k$. The Tate conjecture predicts that, for $l$ a prime number invertible in $k$, the Chern class map ...
Fudly San's user avatar

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