Hodge sheaves underlying flat projective families

Abstract

We show that, for any fixed weight, there is a natural system of Hodge sheaves, whose Higgs field has no poles, arising from a flat projective family of varieties parametrized by a regular complex base scheme, extending the analogous classical result for smooth projective families due to Griffiths. As an application, based on positivity of direct image sheaves, we establish a criterion for base spaces of rational Gorenstein families to be of general type. A key component of our arguments is centered around the construction of derived categorical objects generalizing relative logarithmic forms for smooth maps and their functorial properties.