Relative Chow-Kunneth decompositions for conic bundles and Prym varieties

Abstract

We construct a relative Chow-Kunneth decomposition for a conic bundle over a surface such that the middle projector gives the Prym variety of the associated double covering of the discriminant of the conic bundle. This gives a refinement (up to an isogeny) of Beauville's theorem on the relation between the intermediate Jacobian of the conic bundle and the Prym variety of the double covering.