On the dimension of totally geodesic submanifolds in the Prym loci (Q2162460)

The paper is devoted to the study of the possible dimension of a germ of a totally geodesic submanifold of the moduli space of polarised abelian varieties of a given dimension, which is contained in the Prym locus of a (possibly) ramified double cover. The main result improves estimations previously obtained in a couple of papers. The general approach consists in studying the second fundamental form of the Prym map and deduce an estimate by using the gonality. In this spirit they adapt some techniques previously developed with P. Pirola and A. Ghigi on the study of the second fundamental group of the Torelli map to the case of the Prym map, which allow to conclude their stronger result.