Chow ring and gonality of general abelian varieties (Q2323054)

In this paper, the \emph{gonality} of a projective variety \(X\) is the minimal gonality of a smooth projective (irreducible) curve \(C\) admitting a nonconstant morphism \(j\colon C\to X\). In the case of an abelian variety, the gonality is the same as the \emph{covering gonality} -- i.e. the minimum gonality of an irreducible curve through a general \(x\in X\) (equal to one if and only if X is uniruled) -- studied in [\textit{F. Bastianelli} et al., Compos. Math. 153, No. 11, 2368--2393 (2017; Zbl 1387.14118)]. One of the main results of the paper under review answers affirmatively to a question asked in [\textit{F. Bastianelli} et al., Compos. Math. 153, No. 11, 2368--2393 (2017; Zbl 1387.14118)] concerning the gonality of avery general abelian variety \(A\), namely, whether it grows to infinity with \(g=\dim A\). More precisely, Theorem 1.1. affirms that, if \(A\) is a very general abelian variety of dimension \(g\) with \(g\ge 2^{k-2}(2k-1) + (2^{k-2}-1)(k-2)\), the gonality of \(A\) is at least \(k+ 1\). The author thinks that the theorem is presumably not optimal and she congectures that a very general abelian variety of dimension \(g\), with \(g\ge 2k-1\) has gonality at least \(k+ 1\). She discusses in Section 6 a strategy towards proving this statement and some evidence for it. Theorem 1.1 generalizes a theorem of Pirola [\textit{G. P. Pirola}, Duke Math. J. 59, No. 3, 701--708 (1989; Zbl 0717.14021)] which asserts that a very general abelian variety of dimension at least \(3\) contains no hyperelliptic curves. In fact, the author usees in the proof of Theorem 1.1 (and also Theorems 1.4, 1.8) some of the arguments of [\textit{G. P. Pirola}, Duke Math. J. 59, No. 3, 701--708 (1989; Zbl 0717.14021)] that she generalizes in Section 2. Theorem 1.1 will be obtained as a consequence of the study of \(0\)-cycles modulo rational equivalence on abelian varieties. More precisely, denoting the orbits of \(0\)-cycles \(Z\) of \(X\) under rational equivalence by \(|Z|=\{Z'\in X^{(k)}\mid Z'\) is rationally equivalent to \(Z\) in \(X\}\), where \(X^{(k)}\) is the \(k\)-th symmetric product of \(X\), Theorem 1.4. -- that can be regarded as a Chow-theoretic version of Theorem 1.1. -- states that (1) For any abelian variety \(A\) and integer \(k\ge 1\), any orbit \(|Z| \subset A^{(k)}\) has dimension \(\ge k-1\). (2) If \(g\ge 2^{k-1}(2k-1) + (2^{k-1}-1)(k-2)\), a very general abelian variety \(A\) of dimension \(g\) has no positive-dimensional orbit \(|Z|\), with \(\deg Z \le k\). (3) If \(k\ge2\) and \(A\) is very general of dimension \(g\ge 2^{k-2}(2k-1)+(2^{k-2}-1)(k-2)\), \(A\) has no positive-dimensional orbit of the form \(|Z'+ 2\{0_A\}|\), with \(Z'\) effective and \(\deg Z'\le k-2\). (4) If \(A\) is a very general abelian variety of dimension \(g\ge 2k-1\), the orbit \(|k\{0_A\}|\) is countable.