Constructing low degree hyperbolic surfaces in P^3

Abstract

We describe a new method of constructing Kobayashi-hyperbolic surfaces in complex projective 3-space based on deforming surfaces with a "hyperbolic non-percolation" property. We use this method to show that general small deformations of certain singular abelian surfaces of degree 8 are hyperbolic. We also show that a union of 15 planes in general position in projective 3-space admits hyperbolic deformations.