On the genus of reducible surfaces and degenerations of surfaces (Q2372804)

A classical method for understanding properties of families of curves in projective spaces, is the study of their degenerations to union of lines (stick figures). The combinatorial structure of the resulting configuration contains information on the general elements of the family. The analogous procedure in dimension \(2\) is the degeneration of surfaces to union of planes. Not every union of planes is suitable, under this respect: in order to maintain control on the invariants, some properties on the singularities must be required. The authors say that a reduced surface \(Y\) is \textit{Zappatic} if all of its components are smooth and moreover any singular point is analytically equivalent to a cone over a set of lines, whose dual graph is either a cycle, a fork or a chain. In a previous paper [Ann. Math. (2) 165, 335--395 (2007; Zbl 1122.14028)] the authors used Zappatic degenerations of surfaces to control the behaviour of the \(K^2\) invariant. In the paper under review, the authors determine a formula for the geometric genus (\(\omega\)-genus) \(p_\omega(Y)=h^0(Y,\omega_Y)\) of a Zappatic surface \(Y\), in terms of the geometric genera of components and curves of intersection, and in terms of the combinatorial properties of the dual graph. The authors show, in the main result of the paper, that the geometric genus is invariant, when a smooth surface degenerates to a reduced Zappatic surface.