Deforming curves in Jacobians to non-Jacobians. I: Curves in \(C^{(2)}\) (Q2490384)

There are many ways to construct curves in a Jacobian variety, whereas it is difficult to construct interesting curves in most other abelian varieties. The present paper investigates methods to construct such curves by deforming curves in Jacobians out of the Jacobian locus. First a cohomological criterion is given for a curve in a Jacobian to deform in the direction of an infinitesimal deformation of the Jacobian. Given a Jacobian \(JC\) of a curve \(C\) admitting a pencil \(g^1_d\), this criterion is applied the curve \(X= X_2(g^1_d)\) parametrizing pairs of points of the \(g^1_d\). The main result is the following theorem: Suppose \(C\) is non-hyperelliptic and \(d\geq 4\). Suppose that the curve \(X\) deforms in a direction out of the Jacobian locus. Then either \(d= 4\) or \(d= 5\), \(h^0(g^1_5)= 3\) and \(C\) is of genus \(4\) with some additional properties. If \(d= 4\), the curve \(X\) is a Prym-embedded curve and hence deforms out of the Jacobian locus. For \(d= 5\) this is not clear. In [Geom. Dedicata 115, 33--63 (2005; Zbl 1117.14045)] the author proves an analogous result for the curves parametrizing triples of points of a \(g^1_d\).