Expected Dimensions of Higher-rank Brill-Noether Loci

Abstract

In this paper, we prove a new expected dimension formula for certain rank two Brill-Noether loci with fixed special determinant. This answers a question asked by Osserman and also leads to a new and much simpler proof of a theorem of Osserman. Our result generalizes the well-known result by Bertram, Feinberg and independently Mukai on expected dimension of rank two Brill-Noether loci with canonical determinant and partially verifies a conjecture (in rank two) of Grzegorczyk and Newstead on coherent systems.