Numerical Campedelli surfaces with fundamental group of order 9 (Q2425588)

Let \(S\) be a minimal projective surface of general type defined over the complex numbers. \(S\) is called a numerical Campedelli surface if \(p_{g}=0\), \(K^{2}=2\). Results of \textit{M. Reid} [Surfaces with \(p_{g}=0\), \(K^{2}=2\), preprint available at \url{http://www.warwick.ac.uk/staff/Miles.Reid/surf}] and \textit{A. Beauville} [Invent. Math. 55, 121--140 (1979; Zbl 0403.14006)] guarantee that a numerical Campedelli surface \(S\) has no irregular covers, and that an étale cover of \(S\) has degree \(\leq 9\). In the paper under review, the authors give explicit constructions of all the numerical Campedelli surfaces with algebraic fundamental group \(\pi_{1}^{\text{alg}}\) of order \(9\). They prove that there are three irreducible families, one of dimension 6 with \(\pi_{1}^{\text{alg}}=\mathbb{Z}_{9}\), and two, of dimension respectively 7 and 6, with \(\pi_{1}^{\text{alg}}=\mathbb{Z}_{3}\times \mathbb{Z}_{3}\). Moreover, they prove that the moduli space of such surfaces has two connected components, both irreducible, corresponding to \(\pi_{1}^{\text{alg}}=\mathbb{Z}_{9}\) and \(\pi_{1}^{\text{alg}}=\mathbb{Z}_{3}\times \mathbb{Z}_{3}\). Using these results, the authors show that for all these surfaces \(\pi_{1}^{\text{alg}}\) coincides with the topological fundamental group. They also prove the following surprising result about the base locus \(\Gamma\) of the bicanonical system \(| 2K| \): [1] if \(\pi_{1}^{\text{alg}}=\mathbb{Z}_{9}\), then \(\Gamma\) consists of two points, [2] if \(\pi_{1}^{\text{alg}}=\mathbb{Z}_{3}\times \mathbb{Z}_{3}\), then \(\Gamma\) is empty in general but there is a codimension 1 subvariety of the moduli space where \(\Gamma\) consists of two points. These are the first examples of minimal surfaces of general type with \(K^{2}>1\) whose bicanonical map is not a morphism. Ingredients of the proofs are some results of Konno on surfaces with \(c_1^2=3p_g-6\), and Fujita's classification of normal threefolds of \(\Delta\)-genus 1 in \(\mathbb{P}^7\).