Periods of families of curves in threefolds

Abstract

Clemens' conjecture states that the the number of rational curve in a generic quintic threefold is finite. If it is false we prove that certain periods of rational curves in such a quintic threefold must vanish. Our method is based on a generalization of a proof of Max Noether's theorem using infinitesimal variation of Hodge structures and its reformulation in terms of integrals and Gauss-Manin connection.