Spherical blow-ups of Grassmannians and Mori Dream Spaces

Alex Massarenti, Rick Rischter

Published 2017-05-14Version 1

In this paper we classify weak Fano varieties that can be obtained by blowing-up general points in prime Fano varieties. We also classify spherical blow-ups of Grassmannians in general points, and we compute their effective cone. These blow-ups are, in particular, Mori dream spaces. Finally, we compute the Mori chamber decomposition of the blow-up of a Grassmannian in one point, and we show how it is determined by linear systems of hyperplanes containing the osculating spaces of the Grassmannian at the blown-up point, and by the rational normal curves in the Grassmannian passing through the blown-up point.