Free curves on varieties (Q288665)

A curve in a projective variety \(X\) can be regarded as a non constant morphism \(f:C\to X\), where \(C\) is a smooth projective curve. It is well known that a complex projective variety is uniruled if and only if there exists a free (or equivalently, 0-free) rational curve, and is rationally connected if and only if there exists a very free (or equivalently, \(1\)-free) rational curve. This article generalizes these notions to the cases when the genus \(g(C)\) of \(C\) is positive. For any integer \(r\geqslant 0\), a curve \(f:C\to X\) is called \(r\)-free if for any effective divisor \(D\) of degree \(r\) on \(C\), the bundle \(f^*T_X\otimes \mathcal O_C(-D)\) is globally generated and \(h^1(C, f^*T_X\otimes \mathcal O_C(-D))=0\), where \(T_X\) is the tangent bundle of \(X\). This article shows that if there is a \(1\)-free curve \(f:C\to X\), then \(X\) is \(C\)-connected, that is, for any two general points in \(X\), there is a curve \(f_1:C\to X\) passing through them.NEWLINENEWLINEIf \(g(C)=0\), then \(f:C\to X\) is \(1\)-free if and only if \(f^*T_X\) is ample. If \(g(C)>0\), this is no longer true. However, this article proves that if \(g(C)>0\), then there is a \(0\)-free curve \(f:C\to X\) if and only if there is curve \(f':C'\to X\) of the same genus such that \(f^{'*}T_X\) is ample. Moreover, it is shown that if a complex projective variety \(X\) contains a \(r\)-free curves \(C\) with \(r\geqslant 0\) and \(g(C)\geqslant 1\), then \(X\) is rationally connected. The author also studies free curves over fields of positive characteristics and proves some analogue results.