Westlake Online Math Forum | Wenfei Liu: The volumes of stable surfaces: minimum and accumulation points

2026-05-27 14:21:56

时间2026年6月3日(周三)14:00-16:00

地点:E14-116


主讲人:刘文飞,厦门大学

讲座主题:The volumes of stable surfaces: minimum and accumulation points

讲座摘要: Stable surfaces are the two‑dimensional analogs of stable curves, arising naturally in the compactification of the moduli space of smooth surfaces of general type. The volume (self‑intersection of the canonical divisor) generalizes the genus of a curve. Unlike the genus, which is always an integer, the volumes of stable surfaces are rational numbers with no uniform bound on denominators. A deep theorem of Valery Alexeev shows that the set of such volumes satisfies the descending chain condition (DCC); nevertheless, it does have accumulation points. Hence, describing this set requires understanding both the minimal possible volume and the accumulation points.

The talk is divided into two parts. The first hour, accessible to undergraduates, introduces stable curves, stable surfaces, and the notion of volume through concrete examples. It explains the DCC property and why accumulation points arise. The second hour, aimed at researchers, surveys recent progress on the minimal volume and the accumulation points of the volume set.