Sextic double solids, double covers of $\mathbb P^3$ branched along a sextic surface, are the lowest degree Gorenstein terminal Fano 3-folds, hence are expected to behave very rigidly in terms of birational geometry. Smooth sextic double solids, and those which are $\mathbb Q$-factorial with ordinary double points, are known to be birationally rigid. In this paper, we study sextic double solids with an isolated compound $A_n$ singularity. We prove a sharp bound $n \leq 8$, describe models for each n explicitly, and prove that sextic double solids with $n> 3$ are birationally nonrigid.

Cluster algebras give rise to a class of Gorenstein rings which enjoy a large amount of symmetry. Concentrating on the rank 2 cases, we show how cluster varieties can be used to construct many interesting projective algebraic varieties. Our main application is then to construct hundreds of families of Fano 3-folds in codimensions 4 and 5. In particular, for Fano 3-folds in codimension 4 we construct at least one family for 187 of the 206 possible Hilbert polynomials contained in the Graded Ring Database.

The connection between these Fano 3-folds and plane quartic curves is explained.