On the Hilbert scheme of curves in higher-dimensional projective space (Q1914844)

It is known that there exist obstructed smooth curves in the projective space \(\mathbb{P}^r\), \(r\geq 3\), i.e. smooth curves whose corresponding points in the Hilbert scheme \(\text{Hilb} (\mathbb{P}^r)\) are singular. \textit{D. Mumford} [Am. J. Math. 84, 642-648 (1962; Zbl 0114.13106)] gave an example of an everywhere singular irreducible component of \(\text{Hilb} (\mathbb{P}^r)\), parametrizing smooth curves. Recently, \textit{P. Ellia}, \textit{A. Hirschowitz} and \textit{E. Mezzetti} [Int. J. Math. 3, No. 6, 799-807 (1992; Zbl 0824.14024)] showed that the open subset of \(\text{Hilb} (\mathbb{P}^3)\) parametrizing smooth curves with given genus and degree, can have arbitrarily many components when the genus and the degree grow. In the present paper, the author proves that, for any \(n\geq 3\), there exist infinitely many \(r\) and for each of them a smooth, connected curve \(C_r\) in \(\mathbb{P}^r\) such that \(C_r\) lies on exactly \(n\) irreducible components of \(\text{Hilb} (\mathbb{P}^r)\). This is proven by reducing the problem to an analogous statement for the moduli of surfaces of general type.