Prime exceptional divisors on holomorphic symplectic varieties and monodromy-reflections

Abstract

Let X be a projective irreducible holomorphic symplectic manifold. The second integral cohomology of X is a lattice with respect to the Beauville-Bogomolov pairing. A divisor E on X is called a prime exceptional divisor, if E is reduced and irreducible and of negative Beauville-Bogomolov degree. Let E be a prime exceptional divisor on X. We first observe that associated to E is a monodromy involution of the integral cohomology of X, which acts on the second cohomology lattice as the reflection by the cohomology class of E (Theorem 1.1). We then specialize to the case that X is deformation equivalent to the Hilbert scheme of length n zero-dimensional subschemes of a K3 surface. We determine the set of classes of exceptional divisors on X (Theorem 1.11). This leads to a determination of the closure of the movable cone of X.