Lang maps and Harris's conjecture - a note in search for content

Abstract

The Lang map, namely the universal dominant rational map to a variety of general type, is constructed and briefly discussed in relation with arithmetic conjectures of Harris, Lang and Manin. Existence of the Lang map follows from the additivity of Kodaira dimension, but the fine structure depends on conjectures on birational classification of algebraic varieties. Serious applications of the Lang map are still being searched.