Relative birational automorphisms of algebraic fiber spaces (Q1814232)

The author continues his study of the scheme of birational automorphisms \(\hbox{Bir}(X)\) of a projective variety over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 [Compos. Math. 63, 123-142 (1987; Zbl 0655.14007) and Invent. Math. 93, No. 2, 383-403 (1988; Zbl 0661.14010)]. It is known that for a non-uniruled \(X\), there exist a nonsingular model \(X'\) such that \(\hbox{Bir}(X')_{red}\) is a group scheme with an abelian variety as its identity component \(\hbox{Bir}^ 0(X')\). Assume that the Kodaira dimension of \(X\) is non-negative and let \(f:X\to Y\) be the canonical fibration. The two main questions are whether the group of connected components \(\hbox{Bir}(X')_{red}/\hbox{Bir}^ 0(X')\) is finitely generated and whether the dimension of \(\hbox{Bir}(X)\) is equal to the difference between the irregularities of \(X\) and \(Y\). The main result of the paper claims that each of the two conjectures is true for \(X\) if the same is true for the generic fibre of \(f\). Since the latter variety is defined over a non-algebraically closed field, the author has to generalize his notion of the scheme \(\hbox{Bir}(X)\). In fact, he introduces, the notion of the scheme of relative birational automorphisms \(\hbox{Bir}(X/Y)\).