Remarks on lines and minimal rational curves (Q1041540)

Let \(C\) be a smooth projective curve of genus \(g\geq2\), \(L\) a line bundle of degree \(d\) on \(C\) and \(r\) a positive integer. Denote by \(M\) the moduli space of stable vector bundles of rank \(r\) and determinant \(L\) on \(C\). It is well known that \(M\) is a smooth quasi-projective variety with \(\text{Pic}(M)={\mathbb Z}\cdot\Theta\), where \(\Theta\) is an ample divisor. In a previous paper [Math. Ann. 331, No. 4, 925--937 (2005; Zbl 1115.14027)], the second author proved that any rational curve on \(M\) is defined by a vector bundle \(E\) on \(C\times{\mathbb P}^1\) and gave a formula for the degree of such a curve in terms of the splitting type of \(E\) on the general fibre of the projection \(C\times{\mathbb P}^1\to C\). This formula implies that a rational curve through a general point of \(M\) has degree at least \(r/h\) (with respect to \(\Theta\)), where \(h=\gcd(r,d)\). In the present paper, the authors study rational curves of degree \(1\) in \(M\), which they call lines. It follows from the above that, if \(h<r\), these curves fill up a proper closed subvariety of \(M\), while, if \(h=r\), \(M\) is generally covered by lines. The authors give two constructions for lines on \(M\). The first involves considering non-trivial extensions of the form \(0\to V_1\to V\to V_2\to0\), where \(V_i\) is stable of rank \(r_i\) and degree \(d_i\) and \(r_1d-d_1r=h\). It can be checked that \(V\) is necessarily stable, so, for any \(V_1\), \(V_2\), we obtain a morphism from the projective space of non-trivial extensions to \(M\). We then consider the images of lines under these morphisms, which turn out to be lines in \(M\) in the sense defined. The second construction yields the Hecke curves of \textit{M. S. Narasimhan} and \textit{S. Ramanan} [Tata Inst. fundam. Res., Stud. Math. 8, 291--345 (1978; Zbl 0427.14002)], which (see the cited work of the second author) are lines in \(M\) if and only if \(h=r\). The authors' main theorem (Theorem 2.7) states that these two constructions yield all lines in \(M\). Both constructions yield families of lines, leading to a description of the variety of lines in \(M\) (Theorem 3.1 and Corollary 3.3). The authors present some partial results on the geometry of lines in \(M\) (section 4) and, in the case \(h=1\), give a simple proof of some known results on the stability of the Poincaré bundle and the Picard bundle (Theorem 5.2).