A famous problem in birational geometry is to determine when the birational automorphism group of a Fano variety is finite. The Noether–Fano method has been the main approach to this problem. The purpose of this paper is to give a new approach to the problem by showing that in every positive characteristic, there are Fano varieties of arbitrarily large index with finite (or even trivial) birational automorphism group. To do this, we prove that these varieties admit ample and birationally equivariant line bundles. Our result applies the differential forms that Kollár produces on $p$-cyclic covers in characteristic $p > 0$.

In the present paper we classify del Pezzo surfaces with log terminal singularities admitting an action of a finite simple group.

Assuming a particular case of the Borisov–Alexeev–Borisov conjecture, we prove that finite subgroups of the automorphism group of a finitely generated field over $\mathbb{Q}$ have bounded orders. Further, we investigate which algebraic varieties have groups of birational selfmaps satisfying the Jordan property. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all varieties are assumed to be algebraic, geometrically irreducible and defined over an arbitrary field $\Bbbk$ of characteristic zero.

We prove that an analogue of Jordan's theorem on finite subgroups of general linear groups does not hold for the groups of birational automorphisms of products of an elliptic curve and the projective line. This gives a negative answer to a question posed by Vladimir L. Popov.

We study the birational geometry of irreducible holomorphic symplectic varieties arising as varieties of lines of general cubic fourfolds containing a cubic scroll. We compute the ample and moving cones, and exhibit a birational automorphism of infinite order explaining the chamber decomposition of the moving cone.