On generically non‐reduced components of Hilbert schemes of smooth curves

A classical example of Mumford gives a generically non‐reduced component of the Hilbert scheme of smooth curves in such that a general element of the component is contained in a smooth cubic surface in . In this article we use techniques from Hodge theory to give further examples of such (generically non‐reduced) components of Hilbert schemes of smooth curves without any restriction on the degree of the surface containing it. As a byproduct we also obtain generically non‐reduced components of certain Hodge loci.