Seshadri constants on symmetric products of curves (Q2372672): Difference between revisions

Let \(C\) be a smooth curve of genus \(g \geq 2\) and \(C^{(2)}\) its second symmetric product. In order to describe the ample cone of \(C^{(2)}\) two naturally defined divisors appear. On one hand \(x_p=\{p+q: q \in C\}\) for any \(p \in C\), whose numerical class does not depend in fact of \(p\) and is denoted by \(x\). On the other hand the diagonal \(\Delta=\{p+p:p \in C\}\) whose numerical class is denoted by \(\delta\). It is of interest to describe the intersection \(N\) of the ample cone with the plane in the real vector space \(N^1(C^{(2)})_{\mathbb{R}}\) spanned by \(x\) and \(\delta\). Let us observe that if \(C\) is a very general curve, \(N\) is the entire ample cone. Since \(N\) is a two dimensional cone, it is described by two boundary rays. One of these rays is spanned by the diagonal. The other boundary is characterized by the following number: \(\tau(C)=\)inf\(\{s>0: (s+1)x-(\delta/2)\) is ample\(\}\). It is conjectured that \(\tau(C) = \sqrt{g}\) for a very general curve \(C\) with \(g \geq 4\). The paper under review provides a lower bound of \(\tau(C)\) in terms of the Seshadri constant of a point in \(D^{(2)}\), being \(D\) a smooth curve of genus \(g-1\). This allows the author to state a conjecture (see Conj. 1.3) that fits between the previous one on \(\tau(C)\) and the Nagata Conjecture on the Seshadri constant of \(g \geq 9\) very general points in the projective plane \(\mathbb{P}^2\). Let us recall the definition of the Seshadri constant of a nef real divisor \(L\) at a collection of \(m\) distinct points \(p_1,\dots, p_m\) on a smooth surface \(X\): \(e(p_1, \dots,p_m;X,L)=\)inf\(_C\{{LC \over \Sigma_i m_i}\},\) where \(m_i\) is the multiplicity of \(C\) at \(p_i\) and the infimum is over all reduced irreducible curves \(C \subset X\) passing through at least one of the \(p_i\). The precise theorem (see Thm. 1.2) states that if \(D\) is a smooth curve of genus \(g-1\) and \(a,b >0\) are such that \(a/b>\tau(D)\) and moreover \(e(p;D^{(2)},(a+b)x-b(\delta /2)) \geq b\) for a very general point \(p \in D^{(2)}\) then, for a very general curve \(C\) of genus \(g\), \(\tau(C) \leq a/b\). The proof of this theorem uses a degeneration of the symmetric product that appears by letting \(C\) degenerate to the nodal curve \(C_0\) obtained by gluing to points in \(D\).