In algebraic geometry, general elephant is an idiosyncratic name for a general element of the anticanonical system of a variety, introduced by Miles Reid. For 3-folds the general elephant problem (or conjecture) asks whether general elephants have at most du Val singularities; this has been proved in several cases.

  • Reid, Miles (1987), "Young person's guide to canonical singularities", Algebraic geometry, Bowdoin, 1985 (Brunswick, Maine, 1985), Proc. Sympos. Pure Math., vol. 46, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, pp. 345–414, MR