Hypersurfaces with too many rational curves (Q476765)

The paper under review proves that for every smooth Fano hypersurface of degree at most \(8\), the space of lines has the expected dimension \(2n-d-3\). O. Debarre and J. de Jong has conjectured that this is true for all smooth Fano hypersurfaces. The proof goes as follows. If there is an irreducible component of the Fano scheme of lines has dimension larger than expected, then one can cut down the hypersurface by very general linear sections to obtain a Calabi-Yau hypersurface whose space of lines has dimension larger than expected. Then the author proceeds to show that if this is the case, then the primitive part of the middle cohomology of the Calabi-Yau hypersurface has a non-trivial sub-Hodge structure. However, for a very general linear section, the Hodge structure on the middle cohomology is always simple. Thus every irreducible component of the Fano scheme has the expected dimension.