Terminal 3-fold divisorial contractions of a surface to a curve, I

Abstract

Let C be a smooth curve on an index 1 terminal 3-fold. We investigate the existence of extremal terminal divisorial contractions Y-->X that contract an irreducible surface E to C. We consider cases in respect to the singularities of the general hypersurface section S of X through C. We completely classify such contractions in the case that S has A_i, i < 4 and D_2n for any n, type singularities.