Pseudo-index of Fano manifolds and smooth blow-ups (Q2572567)

For a Fano manifold \(X\) its index \(r_X = \max\{ m \in {\mathbb N}: -K_X = mL\) with \(L \in \text{Pic}(X) \}\), and its pseudo-index \(i_X = \min(-K_X.C)\) for \(C\) a rational curve on \(X\). The pseudo-index of \(X\) is an integer multiple of \(r_X\). Moreover, if \(X\) and \(Y\) are Fano \(n\)-folds and \(X \rightarrow Y\) is a blowup with a smooth connected center \(Z \subset Y\) then a simple check shows that \(r_X \leq r_Y\). The goal of this paper to study the behavior of the pseudo-index (especially studying when \(i_X \leq i_Y\)) under such blow-ups. By theorem 1, if \(X \rightarrow Y\) is as above then \(i_X\) does not exceed \(i_Y\) in any of the cases: (i) \(2\dim(Z) < n+i_Y-1\), (ii) \(2\dim(Z) = n+i_Y-1\) and \(i_Y \geq 2\), (iii) \(\dim(Z) < n/2\). Intuitively the inequality \(i_X \leq i_Y\) should take place for all smooth blow-ups \(X \rightarrow Y\) between Fano \(n\)-folds, but as seen in proposition 1, for any even integer \(n = 2m, m \geq 3\) there exists a special example of a blow-up \(\pi_n: X_n \rightarrow Y_n\) in which \(i_{Y_n} = 1\) but \(i_{X_n} = 2\). As shown in theorem 2, if in case (ii) of theorem 1 one drops the condition \(i_Y \geq 2\), then the inequality \(i_X \leq i_Y\) still holds with only exceptions the blow-ups \(\pi_n\), \(n = 2m \geq 6\) constructed in proposition 1.