On a conjecture of Mukai. (Q1417431)

The authors use the following notations: \(X\) -- a Fano variety, \(\rho_X\) -- its Picard number, \(r_X\) -- the index of \(X\), the largest integer \(m\) such that \(K_X = m \cdot L\) holds in the Picard group of \(X\), and \(\iota_X\) -- the pseudo index, the smallest intersection number of the form \((-K_X)\cdot C \) with \(C\) a rational curve in \(X\). Mukai conjectured that the inequality \(\rho_X(r_X-1) \leq \text{ dim}(X)\) holds. The authors generalize this conjecture to \[ \rho_X(\iota_X-1) \leq \text{ dim}(X) \] and prove it for the following cases: \(X\) is a Fano variety of dimension \(\leq 4\), \(X\) is a toric variety of dimension \(\leq 7\), and \(X\) is toric and satisfies \(\iota_X \geq \frac{\text{ dim}(X)+3}{3}\). The proof uses techniques of Mori and from the theory of toric varieties. It uses extremal contractions, chains of rational curves, families of rational curves and the pairing between \(N_{1(X)}\) and \(\text{ Pic}(X)\).