Calabi-Yau threefolds of quotient type

These are notes from talks of the authors on some explicit examples of families of Calabi-Yau threefolds which are parametrised by a Shimura variety. We briefly review the periods of Calabi-Yau threefolds and we discuss a recent result on Picard-Fuchs equations for threefolds which are hypersurfaces with many automorphisms. Next various examples of families parametrised by Shimura varieties are given. Most of these are due to J.C. Rohde. The examples with an automorphism of o...

The concept of non-Gorenstein involutions on Calabi-Yau threefolds is a higher dimensional generalization of non-symplectic involutions on $K3$ surfaces. We present some elementary facts about Calabi-Yau threefolds with non-Gorenstein involutions. We give a classification of the Calabi-Yau threefolds of Picard rank one with non-Gorenstein involutions whose fixed locus is not zero-dimensional.

A log Calabi--Yau pair consists of a proper variety $X$ and a divisor $D$ on it such that $K_X+D$ is numerically trivial. A folklore conjecture predicts that the dual complex of $D$ is homeomorphic to the quotient of a sphere by a finite group. The main result of the paper shows that the fundamental group of the dual complex of $D$ is a quotient of the fundamental group of the smooth locus of $X$, hence its pro-finite completion is finite. This leads to a positive answer in d...

In this article, we summarize combinatorial description of complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds in Hibi toric varieties. Such Calabi-Yau threefolds have at worst conifold singularities, and are often smoothable to non-singular Calabi-Yau threefolds. We focus on such non-singular Calabi-Yau threefolds of Picard number one, and illustrate the calculation of topological invariants, using new motivating examples.

We study the set of rational curves of a certain topological type in general members of certain families of Calabi-Yau threefolds. For some families we investigate to what extent it is possible to conclude that this set is finite. For other families we investigate whether this set contains at least one point representing an isolated rational curve.

We study threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We begin by showing that any family of such K3 surfaces is completely determined by a map from the base of the family to the moduli space of mirror quartic K3 surfaces. This is then used to give a complete explicit description of all Calabi-Yau threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We conclude by studying the properties of such Calabi-Yau threefolds, including their Hodge numbers and deformation theory.

We ask about the simply connected compact smooth 6-manifolds which can support structures of Calabi-Yau threefolds. In particular, we study the interesting case of Calabi-Yau threefolds $X$ with second betti number 3. We have a cup-product cubic form on the second integral cohomology, a linear form given by the second Chern class, and the integral middle cohomology, and if $X$ is simply connected with torsion free homology this information determines precisely the diffeomorph...

We study various examples of Calabi-Yau threefolds over finite fields. In particular, we provide a counterexample to a conjecture of K. Joshi on lifting Calabi-Yau threefolds to characteristic zero. We also compute the p-adic cohomologies of some Calabi-Yau threefolds constructed by Cynk-van Straten which have remarkable arithmetic properties, as well as those of the Hirokado threefold. These examples and computations answer some outstanding questions of B. Bhatt, T. Ekedahl,...

We show that an abelian fibered Calabi-Yau threefold with a positive entropy automorphism preserving the fibration is unique up to isomorphisms as fibered varieties. We also give a fairly explicit structure theorem of an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold with a positive entropy automorphism preserving the fibration.

This note is a survey of the enumerative geometry of rational curves on Calabi-Yau threefolds, based on a talk given by the author at the May 1991 Workshop on Mirror Symmetry at MSRI. An earlier version appeared in "Essays on Mirror Manifolds"; this version corrects typographical errors that appeared in print, gives a brief update of related progress during the last two years in the form of footnotes, and has more and updated references. (To appear in the second edition of Es...