Small codimension smooth subvarieties in even-dimensional homogeneous spaces with Picard group \(\mathbb Z\) (Q2643118)

\textit{E. Arrondo} and \textit{J. Caravantes} [On the Picard group of low-codimensional subvarieties, e-print, \url{arXiv:math. AG/0511267}] sketched a program to decide whether a divisor \(D\) in a smooth subvariety \(X\) of a smooth even dimensional variety \(Y\) is equivalent to a multiple of a hyperplane section of \(X\). In the paper under review, the author discusses the validity of this method in the case of homogeneous \(Y\) with \(\text{Pic}(Y)=\mathbb{Z}\) and shows that it is closely related to the signature \(\sigma_Y\) of the Poincaré pairing on the middle cohomology of \(Y\). Under some topological assumptions a bound on the rank of \(\text{Pic}(X)\) in terms of \(\sigma_Y\) is given. For Grassmannians, these assumptions are removed to recover the main result of E. Arrondo and J. Caravantes.