Big divisor 2026-10-05
A Cartier divisor on an integral -dimensional projective variety is big when for some and infinitely many positive integers . Equivalently, its Iitaka dimension is . Kodaira's lemma characterizes bigness by an ample-plus-effective decomposition, and the birational linear system criterion for bigness shows why this growth captures the full variety.
If is a nontrivial nef divisor on a K3 surface with , its complete linear system of a divisor has no fixed part. Write . Nefness of and gives . But a nonzero fixed part satisfies , while Riemann–Roch theorem for algebraic surfaces and Serre duality would give if . Hence . Two movable members with no common component have intersection zero and are disjoint, so the system is basepoint-free and has Iitaka dimension one.
Because and , its normal line bundle is . Thus every is trivial and has . The divisor restriction exact sequence gives, for every ,
The maps are surjective. Their nonnegative finite dimensions eventually stabilize, so for every sufficiently large restriction is surjective. A lift of is nowhere zero along , and the canonical section of is nowhere zero outside . Together they generate . Therefore is semiample.
For those same large , the exact sequence of global sections gives
Thus , and the Iitaka dimension is exactly one:
Equivalently, its basepoint-free multiple defines a morphism to a curve: it is nonconstant because its sections grow, and cannot have two-dimensional image because . This is the semiampleness of a square-zero rational curve; it uses no characteristic-zero vanishing theorem.
An ample real divisor is a finite positive real combination of ample Cartier divisors:
Equivalently its numerical class lies in the ample cone. This is a numerical condition even when the coefficients are irrational; it does not mean that some integer multiple of must be an integral divisor.
On an integral projective variety, a big real divisor is a finite positive real combination of big Cartier divisors. Equivalently, by the real form of Kodaira's lemma,
For an integral Cartier divisor, bigness means maximal section-growth order along sufficiently divisible positive , or Iitaka dimension . The real linear equivalence of divisors formulation permits finite positive combinations of effective Cartier divisors, whose supports are codimension one. The definitions and the ample-plus-effective formulation on integral varieties are discussed in Fujino's notes on big real divisors.
For the paper's assertions on a general projective scheme, use componentwise bigness on a projective scheme: require bigness on every reduced irreducible component. All arguments below can then be carried out on those finitely many integral components; ampleness is also detected there. On a reducible scheme, merely asking for maximal total section growth on one component is insufficient. For example , with restricting to on the first component and on the second, has quadratic total section growth, but negative intersection with every line in the second component. No finite collection of codimension-one subvarieties can contain all those lines. Thus that weaker meaning would make part (ii) false. In dimension zero the positivity statements are vacuous and every line bundle is ample; the compatible bigness convention also regards it as big.
The relevant invariant of a divisor is its Iitaka dimension, also called its Kodaira dimension. If two linearly independent global sections occur in , their ratio is a nonconstant rational function. The sections are linearly independent, because a nonconstant rational function over an algebraically closed field is transcendental over that field. Thus some complete linear system of a divisor has positive-dimensional image, contradicting .
Consequently for every ; the nonemptiness of supplies a nonzero section in every multiple. Its unique divisor is entirely fixed. Hence every movable part is zero.
Each is a nef divisor. If , the volume of a nef divisor formula gives quadratic growth of . Multiplication by the section of injects this space into , so the birational linear system criterion for bigness makes the Iitaka dimension of two.
Conversely, if , some , and hence its movable part , has a two-dimensional image. If , the previous part would make basepoint-free with image a curve; this is impossible. Since is nef, , hence .
If all and one has positive dimension, the preceding part supplies a curve image. The just-proved equivalence excludes dimension two, so . Conversely excludes every positive and requires a positive-dimensional linear system. Thus
A smooth rational curve with on a smooth projective surface is semiample and has Iitaka dimension one. Its normal bundle is trivial, so the restriction sequences for have quotient and zero quotient . The finite dimensions of decrease and stabilize. Restriction of sections to is then surjective; a lift of and the canonical section generate globally. Exactness also gives eventually.