Seshadri constants of the anticanonical divisors of Fano manifolds with large index (Q2220189)

Let \(X\) be a normal complex projective variety, \(L\) a nef line bundle over \(X\), and \(x \in X\). The Seshadri constant \(\epsilon(X,L;x)\) is the infimum over all irreducible cuves \(C \subset X\) of the quotients of the \(L\)-degree of \(C\) by the multiplicity of \(C\) at \(x\). It measures the local positivity of \(L\) at \(x\) and, as a function over \(X\), is a lower-continuous function (in the topology whose closed subsets are countable union of Zariski closed sets). The maximum value, attained at a very general \(x \in X\), is denoted as \(\epsilon(X,L;1)\), and is upper bounded by \(\sqrt[n]{L^n}\). Several lower bounds are known when \(L\) ample (see the Introduction of the paper under review and references therein), and it is conjectured to be lower bounded by one when \(X\) smooth and \(L\) ample (see Conj. 1.2). In the particular case of \(X\) a Fano manifold, and \(L\) the anticanonical bunde, one can consider the question of classifying Fano manifolds for which \(\epsilon(X,-K_X,1) \leq 1\). The list is known for Del Pezzo surfaces (see Theorem 1.4) and they are exactly the ones for which the linear system \(|-K_X|\) is not base point free. In Theorem 1.5 the author extends some previously known results to show that when the index \(r_X\) of the Fano variety \(X\) is greater than or equal to \(\dim(X)-3\) then \(\epsilon(X,-K_X;1) \geq r_X\) as predicted. In Theorem 1.6, it is shown that when the index is greater than or equal to the maximum of \(2\) and \(\dim(X)-2\) then \(\epsilon(X,-K_X;1) =r_X\) and also equal to the minimal anticanonical degree of a covering family of rational curves. Finally, in Theorem 1.7, a explicit computation of \(\epsilon(X,-K_X;1)\) for smooth Fano threefolds with Picard number greater than or equal to two is provided. This, together with previously known results lead to the corollary (see Cor. 1.8) that for \(X\) a smooth Fano threefolds very general in its deformation family, \(\epsilon(X,-K_X;1) \leq 1\) is equivalent to the fact that \(|-K_X|\) is not base point free. Examples in dimension \(4\) show (see Ex. 1.10) that the same result does not hold in higher dimension but the question on the non-emptyness of the base locus of \(|-K_X|\) for Fano manifolds such that \(\epsilon(X,-K_X;1) \leq 1\) is posed.