On the minimal length of extremal rays for Fano four-folds (Q431267)

A smooth projective variety \(X\) is called Fano if its anticanonical bundle \(-K_X\) is ample; the index \(r(X)\) and the pseudoindex \(i(X)\) are defined respectively as \[ r(X) := \max \{m \in \mathbb N\;|-K_X = mL {\mathrm{\;for \;some \;line \;bundle \;}} L \}, \] \[ i(X) := \min \{m \in \mathbb N\;|-K_X \cdot C = m {\mathrm{\;for \;some \;rational \;curve \;}} C \subset X \}. \] In all known examples the mininum anticanonical degree of rational curves is obtained by curves whose numerical class lies in an extremal ray of \(X\). It is a natural question whether this property is always true for Fano manifolds. In other words, defining the length \(l(X)\) of \(X\) as the minimum anticanonical degree of rational curves whose numerical class lies in an extremal ray of \(X\), is \(i(X)=l(X)\)? This question is addressed and solved affirmatively in the present paper in a special case, namely for Fano manifolds of dimension four having birational contractions.