A stability condition for line bundles on reducible varieties (Q2001392)

The problem of compactifying the Picard scheme of a family of varieties has been arisen a lot of research, particularly in the case of family of curves. Dealing with singular varieties introduces extra difficulties. For instance, as showed by \textit{T. Oda} and \textit{C. S. Seshadri} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 253, 1--90 (1979; Zbl 0418.14019)], the compactified Picard scheme for a reducible curve is by no means unique. To bypass these difficulties, in this paper, which extends the main result of the author's thesis, a notion of stability condition for line bundles on reducible varieties is defined. This stability condition extends the notion of ``balanced multidegree'' proposed by \textit{L. Caporaso} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 7, No. 3, 589--660 (1994; Zbl 0827.14014)]. With this notion of stability at hand, the author fixes the following setting: a flat and proper family of varieties \(\mathfrak{X}\rightarrow S\) with \(S\) a smooth curve, with fibers being connected and reduced (but possibly reducible) varieties and with the special fiber \(X\) having non-trivial canonical sheaf. Under these conditions, the author shows that any line bundle on the generic fiber of \(\mathfrak{X}\) can be extended to a semistable line bundle on the special fiber \(X\). Moreover, the number of possible extensions is bounded by \(2^{n-1}\), where \(n\) is the number of irreducible components of \(X\). In particular, under mild numerical conditions, this extension is unique.