On the Jacobian locus in the Prym locus and geodesics

Abstract

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 $g\ge 7$, 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 $C$.