Rational families of vector bundles on curves, I

Let C be a smooth complex projective curve of genus at least 2 and let M be the moduli space of rank 2, stable vector bundles on C, with fixed determinant of degree 1. For any k>1, we find two irreducible components of the space of rational curves of degree k on M. One component, which we call the nice component has the property that the general element is a very free curve if k is sufficiently large. The other component has the general element a free curve. Both components have the expected dimension and their maximal rationally connected fibration is the Jacobian of the curve C.Comment: 23 page

Polarized minimal families of rational curves and higher Fano manifolds

In this paper we investigate Fano manifolds $X$ whose Chern characters $ch_k(X)$ satisfy some positivity conditions. Our approach is via the study of polarized minimal families of rational curves $(H_x,L_x)$ through a general point $x\in X$. First we translate positivity properties of the Chern characters of $X$ into properties of the pair $(H_x,L_x)$. This allows us to classify polarized minimal families of rational curves associated to Fano manifolds $X$ satisfying $ch_2(X)\geq0$ and $ch_3(X)\geq0$. As a first application, we provide sufficient conditions for these manifolds to be covered by subvarieties isomorphic to $\mathbb P^2$ and $\mathbb P^3$. Moreover, this classification enables us to find new examples of Fano manifolds satisfying $ch_2(X)\geq0$.Comment: 17 page

Exceptional collections on certain Hassett spaces

We construct an $S_2\times S_n$ invariant full exceptional collection on Hassett spaces of weighted stable rational curves with $n+2$ markings and weights $(\frac{1}{2}+\eta, \frac{1}{2}+\eta,\epsilon,\ldots,\epsilon)$, for $0<\epsilon, \eta\ll1$ and can be identified with symmetric GIT quotients of $(\mathbb{P}^1)^n$ by the diagonal action of $\mathbb{G}_m$ when $n$ is odd, and their Kirwan desingularization when $n$ is even. The existence of such an exceptional collection is one of the needed ingredients in order to prove the existence of a full $S_n$-invariant exceptional collection on $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$. To prove exceptionality we use the method of windows in derived categories. To prove fullness we use previous work on the existence of invariant full exceptional collections on Losev-Manin spaces.Comment: At the request of the referee, the paper arXiv:1708.06340 has been split into two parts. This is the second of those papers (submitted). 36 page