On semistable degenerations of Fano varieties

Consider a family of Fano varieties π:X→B∋o\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\pi :X \rightarrow B\ni o$$\end{document} over a curve germ with a smooth total space X. Assume that the generic fiber is smooth and the special fiber F=π-1(o)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$F=\pi ^{-1}(o)$$\end{document} has simple normal crossings. Then F is called a semistable degeneration of Fano varieties. We show that the dual complex of F is a simplex of dimension 6dimF\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\hbox {\,\char 054\,}\mathrm {dim}\, F$$\end{document}. Simplices of any admissible dimension can be realized for any dimension of the fiber. Using this result and the Minimal Model Program in dimension 3 we reproduce the classification of the semistable degenerations of del Pezzo surfaces obtained by Fujita. We also show that the maximal degeneration is unique and has trivial monodromy in dimension 63\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\hbox {\,\char 054\,}\,3$$\end{document}.