Related papers: Cones of lines having high contact with general hy…

This paper concerns the existence of curves with low gonality on smooth hypersurfaces of sufficiently large degree. It has been recently proved that if $X\subset \mathbb{P}^{n+1}$ is a hypersurface of degree $d\geq n+2$, and if $C\subset X$…

This is a continuation of "Rational curves on hypersurfaces of low degree", math.AG/0203088. We prove that if d^2+d+1 < n and d > 2, then for a general hypersurface X_d in P^n of degree d, for each degree e the space of rational curves of…

It is well known since Noether that the gonality of a smooth plane curve of degree d>3 is d-1. Given a k-dimensional complex projective variety X, the most natural extension of gonality is probably the degree of irrationality, that is the…

We study subvarieties of very general complete intersections $X\subset \mathbb{P}^n$ of multidegree $(d_1,\dots,d_c)$, when $d:= d_1+\dots +d_c$ is sufficiently large. In a seminal paper Ein proved that if $d\geq 2n-c-k+2$, any…

We study various measures of irrationality for hypersurfaces of large degree in projective space and other varieties. These include the least degree of a rational covering of projective space, and the minimal gonality of a covering family…

We compute some numerical invariants of the lines on hyperplane sections of a smooth cubic threefold over complex numbers. We also prove that for any smooth hypersurface $X\subset \mathbb P^{n+1}$ of degree $d$ over an algebraically closed…

In this note, we study various measures of irrationality for hypersurfaces in projective spaces which were recently proposed by Bastianelli, De Poi, Ein, Lazarsfeld and Ullery. In particular, we answer the question raised by Bastianelli…

In this paper, we prove three related results; (1) Extension of our result in [10] to all generic hypersurfaces. More precisely, the normal sheaf of a generic rational map $c_0$ to a generic hypersurface $X_0$ of $\mathbf P^n, n\geq 4$ has…

We study subvarieties of a general projective degree $d$ hypersurface $X_d\subset \mathbf P^n$. Our main theorem, which improves previous results of L. Ein and C. Voisin, implies in particular the following sharp corollary: any subvariety…

Let $C$ be the rational normal curve of degree $e$ in $\mathbb{P}^n$, and let $X\subset \mathbb{P}^n$ be a degree $d\ge 2$ hypersurface containing $C$. In previous work, I. Coskun and E. Riedl showed that the normal bundle $N_{C/X}$ is…

Let X be a smooth hypersurface of degree d in P^n over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p. We show that X must be separably rationally connected and must contain a free line if either p is at least d or if p is at least d-1…

This article describes a unirationality construction for general low degree complete intersections in projective space which is based on a variety of highly tangent lines. Applied to hypersurfaces, this implies that a general hypersurface…

The $k$-flex locus of a projective hypersurface $V\subset \mathbb P^n$ is the locus of points $p\in V$ such that there is a line with order of contact at least $k$ with $V$ at $p$. Unexpected contact orders occur when $k\ge n+1$. The case…

We determine the versal deformation of cones, in the simplest case: cones over hyperelliptic curves of high degree. In particular, we show that for degree $4g+4$, the highest degree for which interesting deformations exist, the number of…

Let $X$ be a smooth projective hypersurface defined over $\mathbb{Q}$. We provide new bounds for rational points of bounded height on $X$. In particular, we show that if $X$ is a smooth projective hypersurface in $\mathbb{P}^n$ with $n\geq…

A variety $X$ is covered by lines if there exist a finite number of lines contained in $X$ passing through each general point. I prove two theorems. Theorem 1:Let $X^n\subset P^M$ be a variety covered by lines. Then there are at most $n!$…

This article proves hypersurfaces of degree d in projective n-space are "rationally simply-connected" if $d^2 \leq n$. In a forthcoming paper, de Jong and I prove a slightly weaker result when $d^2 \leq n+1$.

Let $X$ be an arbitrary smooth hypersurface in $\mathbb{C} \mathbb{P}^n$ of degree $d$. We prove the de Jong-Debarre Conjecture for $n \geq 2d-4$: the space of lines in $X$ has dimension $2n-d-3$. We also prove an analogous result for…

We show first that a generic hypersurface $V$ of degree $d\geq 3$ in the complex projective space $ \mathbb{P}^n$ of dimension $n \geq 3$ has at least one hyperplane section $V \cap H$ containing exactly $n$ ordinary double points, alias…

In this paper we study the gonality of the normalizations of curves in the linear system $|H|$ of a general primitively polarized $K3$ surface $(S,H)$ of genus $p$. We prove two main results. First we give a necessary condition on $p, g, k$…