Canonical map of low codimensional subvarieties (Q1772253)

Fix integers \(a \geq 1\), \(b\) and \(c\). The authors prove that for certain projective varieties \(V \subset {\mathbb P}^r\) there are only finitely many components of the Hilbert scheme parameterizing irreducible, smooth, projective, low codimensional subvarieties \(X\) of \(V\) such that \[ h^0(X, {\mathcal O}_X(aK_X - bH_X)) \leq \lambda d^{\varepsilon_1} + c \left ( \sum_{1 \leq h < \varepsilon_2} p_g(X^{(h)} ) \right ). \] Here \(d, K_X, H_X\) are the degree, the canonical divisor and the general hyperplane section of \(X\), respectively, and \(p_g (X^{(h)})\) is the geometric genus of the general linear section of \(X\) of dimension \(h\), while \(\lambda, \varepsilon_1, \varepsilon_2\) are suitable positive real numbers depending only on the dimension of \(X\), on \(a\) and on the ambient variety \(V\). The term ``low codimensional'' summarizes a number of different cases dealt with in the theorem. This extends work of \textit{G. Ellingsrud} and \textit{C. Peskine} [Invent. Math. 95, 1--11 (1989; Zbl 0676.14009)], of the first two authors of this paper (several papers), and of \textit{P. Ellia} and \textit{C. Folegatti} [Commun. Algebra 32, 707--713 (2004; Zbl 1062.14048)]. As a corollary, the authors show that except for finitely many families of varieties, the canonical map of any irreducible, smooth, projective, low codimensional subvariety of \(V\) is birational. Applications of these results can be made for instance to certain possibly singular complete intersections.