Separable rational connectedness and stability

Abstract

In this short note we prove that in many cases the failure of a variety to be separably rationally connected is caused by the instability of the tangent sheaf (if there are no other obvious reasons). A simple application of the results proves that a smooth Fano complete intersection is separably rationally connected if and only if it is separably uniruled. In particular, a general such Fano complete intersection is separably rationally connected.