Birational rigidity of orbifold degree 2 del Pezzo fibrations

Abstract: Varieties fibered into del Pezzo surfaces form a class of possible outputs of the minimal model program. It is known that del Pezzo fibrations of degrees $1$ and $2$ over the projective line with smooth total space satisfying the so-called $K^2$-condition are birationally rigid: their Mori fibre space structure is unique. This implies that they are not birational to any Fano varieties, conic bundles or other del Pezzo fibrations. In particular, they are irrational. The families of del Pezzo fibrations with smooth total space of degree $2$ are rather special, as for "most" families a general del Pezzo fibration has the simplest orbifold singularities. We prove that orbifold del Pezzo fibrations of degree $2$ over the projective line satisfying explicit generality conditions as well as a generalised $K^2$-condition are birationally rigid.