A generalized principal ideal theorem with an application to Brill-Noether theory (Q1127761)

Let \(C\) be a smooth complex projective curve of genus \(g\) and let \({\mathfrak W}_C^{r,d}\) be the variety parameterizing complete linear systems on \(C\) of degree \(d\) and dimension at least \(r\). We denote by \(W^r_d(C)\) the set of all \(\mathbb{C}\)-valued points of \({\mathfrak W}^{r,d}_C\), i.e. \[ W^r_d(C)= \bigl \{|D|: \deg D=d,\;\dim|D|\geq r\bigr\}. \] By a theorem of Kempf and Kleiman-Laksov, \(W^r_d(C)\) is non-empty if the Brill-Noether number \(\rho= \rho (g,r,d): =g-(r+1) (g-d+r)\) is nonnegative. Furthermore, in this case every component of \({\mathfrak W}^{r,d}_C\) has dimension at least \(\min\{\rho,g\}\). In case \(\rho<0\), a theorem of Griffiths-Harris asserts that \(W^r_d(C)\) is empty for a general curve \(C\). If we denote by \({\mathcal W}^r_d ({\mathfrak M}_g)\) the locus of all curves \(C\) in the moduli space \({\mathfrak M}_g\) with \(W^r_d(C) \neq \emptyset\), this means that \({\mathcal W}^r_d({\mathfrak M}_g)= {\mathfrak M}_g\) if \(\rho\geq 0\) and \({\mathcal W}^r_d ({\mathfrak M}_g)\neq {\mathfrak M}_g\) if \(\rho<0\). In the paper under review, among other things, the author proves the following theorem: Let \(r,d\) be integers such that \(d\geq 1\) and \(r\geq 0\). If \({\mathcal W}^r_d ({\mathfrak M}_g)\) is nonempty, then every irreducible component of \({\mathcal W}^r_d ({\mathfrak M}_g)\) has codimension at most \(\max\{0,-\rho (g,r,d)\}\).