Subspace configurations and low degree points on curves

Abstract

This paper is devoted to understanding curves $X$ over a number field $k$ that possess infinitely many solutions in extensions of $k$ of degree at most $d$; such solutions are the titular low degree points. For $d=2,3$ it is known (by the work of Harris-Silverman and Abramovich-Harris) that such curves, after a base change to $\overline{k},$ admit a map of degree at most $d$ onto $\mathbb{P}^1$ or an elliptic curve. For $d \geqslant 4$ the analogous statement was shown to be false by Debarre and Fahlaoui. We prove that once the genus of $X$ is high enough, the low degree points still have geometric origin: they can be obtained as pullbacks of low degree points from a lower genus curve. We introduce a discrete-geometric invariant attached to such curves: a family of subspace configurations, with many interesting properties. This structure gives a natural alternative construction of curves with many low degree points, that were first discovered by Debarre and Fahlaoui. As an application of our methods, we obtain a classification of such curves over $k$ for $d=2,3$, and a classification over $\overline{k}$ for $d=4,5$.