Let $X$ be a compact Kähler manifold. The so-called Kodaira problem asks whether $X$ has arbitrarily small deformations to some projective varieties. While Kodaira proved that such deformations always exist for surfaces. Starting from dimension 4, there are examples constructed by Voisin which answer the Kodaira problem in the negative. In this talk, we will focus on threefolds, as well as compact Kähler manifolds of algebraic dimension $a(X) = dim(X) -1$. We will explain our positive solution to the Kodaira problem for these manifolds.[-]

We study the following real version of the famous Abhyankar-Moh Theorem: Which real rational map from the affine line to the affine plane, whose real part is a non-singular real closed embedding of $\mathbb{R}$ into $\mathbb{R}^2$, is equivalent, up to a birational diffeomorphism of the plane, to the linear one? We show that in contrast with the situation in the categories of smooth manifolds with smooth maps and of real algebraic varieties with regular maps where there is only one equivalence class up to isomorphism, there are plenty of non-equivalent smooth rational closed embeddings up to birational diffeomorphisms. Some of these are simply detected by the non-negativity of the real Kodaira dimension of the complement of their images. But we also introduce finer invariants derived from topological properties of suitable fake real planes associated to certain classes of such embeddings.
(Joint Work with Adrien Dubouloz).[-]

Malgré les succès de la théorie de Hodge non abélienne de Corlette-Simpson pour exclure que de nombreux groupes de présentation finie soient groupes fondamentaux de variétés projectives lisses (ou des groupes Kähleriens), les techniques de construction manquent. La construction de Campana du groupe fondamental orbifold d'une paire orbifolde permet de considérer le groupe fondamental des compactifications orbifolds d'une variété (ou champ) quasiprojective lisse donnée $U$ qui, si quelques précautions sont prises et sous des hypothèses raisonnables - mais pas toujours faciles a vérifier, est un groupe Kählerien. En choisissant bien la variété $U$, les groupes obtenus sont potentiellement intéressants et on utilise souvent des techniques inattendues pour établir les propriétés de leurs représentations linéaires. L'exposé fera un survey de cas particulièrement intrigants ou, par exemple, $U$ est un complément d'arrangement de droites, une variété localement complexe hyperbolique non compacte ou un espace de modules de courbes pointées.[-]

Smooth, complex Fano 4-folds are not classified, and we still lack a good understanding of their general properties. We focus on Fano 4-folds with large second Betti number $b_{2}$, studied via birational geometry and the detailed analysis of their contractions and rational contractions (we recall that a contraction is a morphism with connected fibers onto a normal projective variety, and a rational contraction is given by a sequence of flips followed by a contraction). The main result that we want to present is the following: let $X$ be a Fano 4-fold having a nonconstant rational contraction $X --> Y$ of fiber type. Then either $b_{2}(X)$ is at most 18, with equality only for a product of surfaces, or $Y$ is $\mathbb{P}^{1}$ or $\mathbb{P}^{2}$. The proof is achieved by reducing to the case of "special" rational contractions of fiber type. We will explain this notion and give an idea of the techniques that are used.[-]

Gushel-Mukai varieties are defined as the intersection of the Grassmannian Gr(2, 5) in its Plücker embedding, with a quadric and a linear space. They occur in dimension 6 (with a slighty modified construction), 5, 4, 3, 2 (where they are just K3 surfaces of degree 10), and 1 (where they are just genus 6 curves). Their theory parallels that of another important class of Fano varieties, cubic fourfolds, with many common features such as the presence of a canonically attached hyperkähler fourfold: the variety of lines for a cubic is replaced here with a double EPW sextic.
There is a big difference though: in dimension at least 3, GM varieties attached to a given EPW sextic form a family of positive dimension. However, we prove that the Hodge structure of any of these GM varieties can be reconstructed from that of the EPW sextic or of an associated surface of general type, depending on the parity of the dimension (for cubic fourfolds, the corresponding statement was proved in 1985 by Beauville and Donagi). This is joint work with Alexander Kuznetsov.[-]

In the talk I will discuss rationality criteria for Fano 3-folds of geometric Picard number 1 over a non-closed field $k$ of characteristic 0. Among these there are 8 types of geometrically rational varieties. We prove that in one of these cases any variety of this type is k-rational, in four cases the criterion of rationality is the existence of a $k$-rational point, and in the last three cases the criterion is the existence of a $k$-rational point and a k rational curve of genus 0 and degree 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The last result is based on recent results of Benoist-Wittenberg. This is a joint work with Yuri Prokhorov.[-]