Hilbert squares of K3 surfaces and Debarre-Voisin varieties

Abstract

The Debarre-Voisin hyperkähler fourfolds are built from alternating $3$-forms on a $10$-dimensional complex vector space, which we call trivectors. They are analogous to the Beauville-Donagi fourfolds associated with cubic fourfolds. In this article, we study several trivectors whose associated Debarre-Voisin variety is degenerate, in the sense that it is either reducible or has excessive dimension. We show that the Debarre-Voisin varieties specialize, along general $1$-parameter degenerations to these trivectors, to varieties isomorphic or birationally isomorphic to the Hilbert square of a K3 surface.

47 pages. Introduction rewritten and various corrections made throughout the article