On Fano schemes of linear spaces of general complete intersections

Abstract

We consider the Fano scheme $F_k(X)$ of $k$--dimensional linear subspaces contained in a complete intersection $X \subset \mathbb{P}^n$ of multi--degree $\underline{d} = (d_1, \ldots, d_s)$. Our main result is an extension of a result of Riedl and Yang concerning Fano schemes of lines on very general hypersurfaces: we consider the case when $X$ is a very general complete intersection and $\Pi_{i=1}^s d_i > 2$ and we find conditions on $n$, $\underline{d}$ and $k$ under which $F_k(X)$ does not contain either rational or elliptic curves. At the end of the paper, we study the case $\Pi_{i=1}^s d_i = 2$.