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Given a smooth projective complex curve inside a smooth projective surface, one can ask how its Hodge structure varies when the curve moves inside the surface. In this paper we develop a general theory to study the infinitesimal version of this question in the case of ample curves. We can then apply the machinery to show that the infinitesimal variation of Hodge structure of a general deformation of an ample curve in $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1$ is an isomorphism., Comment: 30 pages. Comments Welcome!

Constant cycle curves on a K3 surface $X$ over $\mathbb{C}$ have been introduced by Huybrechts (2014) as curves whose points all define the same class in the Chow group. In this paper we study correspondences $Z \subseteq X\times X$ over $\mathbb{C}$ acting on the group $\mbox{ccc}(X)$ of cycles generated by irreducible constant cycle curves. We construct for any $n\geq 2$ and any very ample line bundle $L$ a locus $Z_n(L)\subseteq X\times X$ of expected dimension $2$, which yields a correspondence that acts on $\mbox{ccc}(X)$, when it has the expected dimension. We provide examples of $Z_n(L)$ for low $n$ and exhibit one correspondence different from $Z_n(L)$ acting on $\mbox{ccc}(X)$., Comment: introduction updated

In this note we prove that the Torelli, Prym and Spin-Torelli morphisms, as well as covering maps between moduli stacks of projective curves can not be deformed. The proofs use properties of the Fujita decomposition of the Hodge bundle of families of curves., Comment: To appear on "Algebra & Number Theory"

In this paper we consider unramified coverings of the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_g$ of smooth projective complex curves of genus $g$. Under some hypothesis on the branch locus of the finite extended map to the Deligne-Mumford compactification, we prove the vanishing of the vector space of holomorphic 1-forms on the preimage of the smooth locus of $\mathcal{M}_g$. This applies to several moduli spaces, as the moduli space of curves with 2-level structures, of spin curves and of Prym curves. In particular, we obtain that there are no non-trivial holomorphic 1-forms on the smooth open set of the Prym locus.

The Quillen connection on ${\mathcal L} \rightarrow {\mathcal M}_g$, where ${\mathcal L}^*$ is the Hodge line bundle over the moduli stack of smooth complex projective curves curves ${\mathcal M}_g$, $g \geq 5$, is uniquely determined by the condition that its curvature is the Weil--Petersson form on ${\mathcal M}_g$. The bundle of holomorphic connections on ${\mathcal L}$ has a unique holomorphic isomorphism with the bundle on ${\mathcal M}_g$ given by the moduli stack of projective structures. This isomorphism takes the $C^\infty$ section of the first bundle given by the Quillen connection on ${\mathcal L}$ to the $C^\infty$ section of the second bundle given by the uniformization theorem. Therefore, any one of these two sections determines the other uniquely.

In this paper we consider the problem of pointwise determining the fibres of the flat unitary subbundle of a PVHS of weight one. Starting from the associated Higgs field, and assuming the base has dimension $1$, we construct a family of (smooth but possibly non-holomorphic) morphisms of vector bundles with the property that the intersection of their kernels at a general point is the fibre of the flat subbundle. We explore the first one of these morphisms in the case of a geometric PVHS arising from a family of smooth projective curves, showing that it acts as the cup-product with some sort of "second-order Kodaira-Spencer class" which we introduce, and check in the case of a family of smooth plane curves that this additional condition is non-trivial., Comment: Title changed to emphasize the contents of the first sections

In the paper we consider the Jacobian locus $\overline{J_g}$ and the Prym locus $\overline{P_{g+1}}$, in the moduli space $A_g$ of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension $g$, for $g\geq 7$, and we study the extrinsic geometry of $\overline{J_g}\subset \overline{P_{g+1}}$, under the inclusion provided by the theory of generalized Prym varieties as introduced by Beauville. More precisely, we study certain geodesic curves with respect to the Siegel metric of $A_g$, starting at a Jacobian variety $[JC]\in A_g$ of a curve $[C]\in M_g$ and with direction $\zeta\in T_{[JC]}J_g$. We prove that for a general $JC$, any geodesic of this kind is not contained in $\overline{J_g}$ and even in $\overline{P_{g+1}}$, if $\zeta$ has rank $k<\Cliff C-3$, where $\Cliff C$ denotes the Clifford index of $C$.

In this paper we study totally geodesic subvarieties $Y \subset \mathsf{A}_g$ of the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties with respect to the Siegel metric, for $g\geq 4$. We prove that if $Y$ is generically contained in the Torelli locus, then $\dim Y \leq (7g -2)/3$.

In this note we consider the flat bundle U and the kernel K of the Higgs field naturally associated to any (polarized) variation of Hodge structures of weight 1. We study how strict the inclusion of U in K can be in the geometric case. More precisely, for any smooth projective curve C of genus g (at least 2) and any k (between 0 and g-1), we construct non-isotrivial deformations of C over a quasi-projecive base such that K has rank k and U has rank at most (g+1)/2., Comment: Construction of the covering in the proof of Theorem 1.1 updated. Referee's comments incorporated

Let $f:S\to B$ be a fibration of curves and let $f_\ast\omega_{S/B}=\cU\oplus \cA$ be the second Fujita decomposition of $f.$ In this paper we study a kind of Massey products, which are defined as infinitesimal invariants by the cohomology of a curve, in relation to the monodromy of certain subbundles of $\cU$. The main result states that their vanishing on a general fibre of $f$ implies that the monodromy group acts faithfully on a finite set of morphisms and is therefore finite. In the last part we apply our result in terms of the normal function induced by the Ceresa cycle. On the one hand, we prove that the monodromy group of the whole $\cU$ of hyperelliptic fibrations is finite (giving another proof of a result due to Luo and Zuo). On the other hand, we show that the normal function is non torsion if the monodromy is infinite (this happens e.g. in the examples shown by Catanese and Dettweiler).

Let $f\colon S\to B$ be a non-isotrivial fibred surface. We prove that the genus $g$, the rank $u_f$ of the unitary summand of the Hodge bundle $f_*\omega_f$ and the Clifford index $c_f$ satisfy the inequality $u_f \leq g - c_f$. Moreover, we prove that if the general fibre is a plane curve of degree $\geq 5$ then the stronger bound $u_f \leq g - c_f-1$ holds. In particular, this provides a strengthening of the bounds of \cite{BGN} and of \cite{FNP}. The strongholds of our arguments are the deformation techniques developed by the first author in \cite{Rigid} and by the third author and Pirola in \cite{PT}, which display here naturally their power and depht., Comment: 19 pages, revised version

Motivated by a conjecture of Xiao, we study families of coverings of elliptic curves and their corresponding Prym map $\Phi$. More precisely, we describe the codifferential of the period map $P$ associated to $\Phi$ in terms of the residue of meromorphic $1$-forms and then we use it to give a characterization for the coverings for which the dimension of $\ker(dP)$ is the least possibile. This is useful in order to exclude the existence of non isotrivial fibrations with maximal relative irregularity and thus also in order to give counterexamples to the Xiao's conjecture mentioned above. The first counterexample to the original conjecture, due to Pirola, is then analysed in our framework., Comment: 21 pages, no figures. The seminal ideas at the base of this article were born in the framework of the PRAGMATIC project of year 2016