Free and very free morphisms into a Fermat hypersurface (Q381206)

Let \(X\) be a smooth variety. A morphism \(f:\mathbb{P}^1 \to X\) is free (resp. very free) if \[ f^*T_X = \bigoplus \mathcal{O}(a_i), \] with all the numbers \(a_i\) non-negative (resp. positive). A smooth projective variety is \textit{separably rationally connected} if there is a very free curve. A very well-known open question is whether a smooth projective Fano hypersurface in characteristic \(p>0\) is separably rationally connected. In characteristic \(0\), this is the result of Kollár-Miyaoka-Mori and Campana. Some experts expect that if there is a smooth projective Fano hypersurface which is not separably rationally connected, then the Fermat hypserurface \[ X_0^{p^r+1}+\ldots +X_{p^r+1}^{p^r+1}=0 \] in \(\mathbb{P}^{p^r+1}\) might provide one such example. The paper studies the case of \(p=2, r=2\). The authors show that there is no free curve of degree less than \(8\), no very free curve of degree less than \(9\), and there is a free curve of degree \(8\) and very free curve of degree \(9\).