Skip to main content
3 of 3
Commonmark migration

Are the arithmetic genera of Cohen-Macaulay curves in a fixed homology class bounded?

Let X be a smooth projective variety over the complex numbers. Recall that a Cohen-Macaulay curve is a one-dimensional closed subscheme without embedded or isolated points (fat components are allowed).

I want to show that if you fix a curve class β in H2(X), then there is a bounded interval which contains the genus of every CM curve whose homology class is β.

Do you know of a reference for this result?

Motivation: I am trying to prove a certain class of sheaves forms a bounded family (namely, the collection of sheaves underlying stable pairs). The above result will allow me to reduce to the case where the support is a fixed CM curve, and from there, I know how to finish the proof.

I am aware that Le Potier (who built the moduli space of stable pairs, among others things, in "System Coherents et Structures de Niveau" --- pardon my lack of accents) has proven a much stronger result. However, for my purposes, it would be very helpful to have a proof (hopefully much less technically demanding than Le Potier's) that is no more general than what I need.

EDIT: in hindsight, and in light of the negative answer below, I realize that Le Potier does not claim to prove quite what I claimed he claimed.

David Steinberg
  • 2.2k
  • 2
  • 22
  • 36