New counterexamples to the birational Torelli theorem for Calabi–Yau manifolds

Abstract

We produce counterexamples to the birational Torelli theorem for Calabi–Yau manifolds in arbitrarily high dimension: this is done by exhibiting a series of non-birational pairs of Calabi–Yau ( n 2 − 1 ) (n^2-1) -folds which, for n ≥ 2 n \geq 2 even, admit an isometry between their middle cohomologies. These varieties also satisfy an L \mathbb {L} -equivalence relation in the Grothendieck ring of varieties, i.e. the difference of their classes annihilates a power of the class of the affine line. We state this last property for a broader class of Calabi–Yau pairs, namely all those which are realized as pushforwards of a general ( 1 , 1 ) (1,1) -section on a homogeneous roof in the sense of Kanemitsu, along its two extremal contractions.