On projective Kähler manifolds of partially positive curvature and rational connectedness (Q2184563)

The paper under review investigates the broad question, for a given compact complex manifold \(X\), of the link between the existence of a hermitian metric \(\omega\) with various positivity conditions on its curvature and the geometry of rational curves on \(X\). This problem has a long history, involving most notably the Andreotti-Frankel conjecture asserting that a compact Kähler manifold admitting a Kähler metric with positive bisectional curvature is isomorphic to the projective space. The conjecture was proved by \textit{Y.-T. Siu} and \textit{S.-T. Yau} [Invent. Math. 59, 189--204 (1980; Zbl 0442.53056)] and \textit{S. Mori} [Ann. Math. (2) 110, 593--606 (1979; Zbl 0423.14006)] by very different methods. Two main results of the paper are stated in terms of the maximal rationally connected (MRC) fibration \(X \dashrightarrow Z\) of a projective manifold \(X\), as defined by Campana and Kollár-Miyaoka-Mori. This is an almost holomorphic map whose fibers are rationally connected and essentially contain all rational curves in \(X\). The first main result, Theorem 1.1, states that if a projective manifold \(X\) admits a Kähler metric \(\omega\) such that the sum of any \(k\) eigenvalues of \(\mathrm{Ric}(\omega)\) is positive for some \(1\le k \le n\), then a general fiber of the MRC fibration of \(X\) has dimension at least \(n-k+1\). The result interpolates the known extremal cases: \begin{itemize} \item[\(\bullet\)] \(k=1\) means that \(X\) is a Fano manifold, and the conclusion is that \(X\) is rationally connected (an old result of Campana and Kollár-Miyaoka-Mori). \item[\(\bullet\)] \(k=n\) means that the scalar curvature is pointwise positive, and the conclusion is that \(X\) is uniruled (this follows easily from the main result of \textit{S. Boucksom} et al. [J. Algebr. Geom. 22, No. 2, 201--248 (2013; Zbl 1267.32017)], cf. [the authors, Commun. Anal. Geom. 20, No. 4, 751--764 (2012; Zbl 1266.32033)]. \end{itemize} The second main result, Theorem 1.5, starts from a projective manifold \(X\) admitting a Kähler metric \(\omega\) with non-negative holomorphic sectional curvature, i.e., \(\mathrm{HSC}_{\omega}(\xi) \ge 0\) for all \(\xi \in T_xX\). One introduces the number \(1\le r_X^+ \le n\) which is the largest possible codimension of a vector space inside \(T_xX\) (\(x\) ranging in \(X\)) in restriction to which \(\mathrm{HSC}_{\omega}\) vanishes. The conclusion is then that a general fiber of the MRC fibration of \(X\) has dimension at least \(r_X^+\). A striking consequence of that result is in the extremal case \(r_X^+=n\), corresponding to \(\mathrm{HSC}_\omega>0\) at some point \(x\in X\) (additionally to the semipositivity assumption \(\mathrm{HSC}_\omega \ge 0\) everywhere), which implies that \(X\) is rationally connected. The result was proven independently by \textit{X. Yang} [Camb. J. Math. 6, No. 2, 183--212 (2018; Zbl 1392.32007)] in the more general Kähler case, relying on the closely related notion of RC-positivity.