On the rank of non-rigid period maps in the weight one and two case (Q4027243)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0745.00049.] A variation of polarized Hodge structures over a quasi-projective smooth base \(S\) is a holomorphic horizontal locally liftable map \(f:S \to D/ \Gamma\) from \(S\) to a Griffith domain modulo a discrete subgroup of \(\Aut (D)\). In previous work of the author a criterion for rigidity has been proved [Compos. Math. 75, No. 1, 113-126 (1990; Zbl 0743.14006)] by computing the tangent space at \(f\) to a certain moduli-space of maps \(S \to D/ \Gamma\). Using this, in the case of weight 1 or 2 the author determines a natural number \(a(D)\) (depending on the Hodge numbers of the variation alone) with the following two properties: 1. Any map \(f\) with rank \(>a(D)\) is rigid; 2. There are examples of immersive \(f\), \(\dim(S)=a(D)\) having exactly one deformation-parameter. This generalizes Noguchi's results in the case where \(D\) is a symmetric bounded domain [\textit{J. Noguchi}, Invent. Math. 93, No. 1, 15-34 (1988; Zbl 0651.32012)].