Families of disjoint divisors on varieties (Q524915)

Let \(X\) be a normal, proper, integral variety defined over an algebraically closed field. The Weil divisor rank \(\rho_w(X)\) of \(X\) is defined to be the minimum dimension of the \(\mathbb{Q}\)-vector space \(B^1(\tilde{X})=(\text{CH}^1(\tilde{X})/\text{CH}^1(\tilde{X})_{\text{hom}})\otimes\mathbb{Q}\) over all projective, normal modifications \(\pi:\tilde{X}\rightarrow X\) of \(X\). Let \(\{D_i\}_{i\in I}\) be a collection of pairwise-disjoint, reduced, codimension-one, connected subvarieties of \(X\) such that \(\sharp I\geq\rho_w(X)+1\). The main result of this paper shows that there is a smooth, projective curve and a surjective morphism \(f:X\rightarrow C\) with connected fibers such that for any \(i\in I\), the divisor \(D_i\) is contained in a fiber of \(f\). Furthermore, there is a set \(\Sigma\subset I\) so that \(\sharp I\setminus\Sigma\leq\rho_w(X)-2\) and for each \(i\in\Sigma\), \(D_i\) is equal to a fiber of \(f\). On the other hand the authors prove a strong counterexample in the affine case: if \(X\) is a quasi-affine variety over a countable, algebraically-closed field \(k\), then there is a countable family \(\{D_i\}_{i\in I}\) of pairwise-disjoint divisors which cover the \(k\)-points of \(X\), so that for any non-constant morphism from \(X\) to a curve, at most finitely many are contained in the fibers thereof.