Automorphism groups of Beauville surfaces

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Abstract: This paper shows that the automorphism group of a Beauville surface is a finite solvable group, and describes its possible structure. It relies on results of Singerman on triangle group inclusions, and of Lucchini on generators for special linear groups.


In the paper under review, the author studies the automorphism group \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\) of a Beauville surface \(S\) of unmixed type. A surface \(S\) is said to be a Beauville surface of unmixed type, if it is isomorphic to the quotient \((C_1\times C_2)/G\), where \(C_1\) and \(C_2\) are curves of genus at least two, and \(G\) is a finite group action freely on the product \(C_1\times C_2\), such that \(G\) preserves the factors \(C_i\), \(C_i/G\) is rational and the covering map \(C_i\to C_i/G\) is ramified over three points.NEWLINENEWLINELet \(S\) be such a surface. Then any automorphism of \(S\) can be lifted to be an automorphism of \(C_1\times C_2\) [\textit{F. Catanese}, Am. J. Math. 122, No. 1, 1--44 (2000; Zbl 0983.14013)]. An automorphism of \(S\) is said to be an direct or indirect one if its lift preserves or transposes the two factors \(C_i\). The direct automorphisms form a subgroup \(\mathrm{Aut}^0(S)\) of index at most two in \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\).NEWLINENEWLINEThe following theorems are proved:NEWLINENEWLINE (a) \(\mathrm{Aut}^0(S)\) and \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\) have an abelian normal subgroup \(\mathrm{I}(S)\), which is isomorphic to the center \(\mathrm{Z}(G)\) of \(G\);NEWLINENEWLINE (b) The quotient \(\mathrm{Aut}^0(S)/\mathrm{I}(S)\) and \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)/\mathrm{I}(S)\) are isomorphic to a subgroup of \(S_3\times S_3\) and the wreath \(S_3\wr S_2\) respectively, where \(S_n\) is the symmetric group of degree \(n\). In particular, \(\mathrm{Aut}^0(S)\) and \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\) are solvable and they have order dividing \(36|\mathrm{Z}(G)|\) and \(72|\mathrm{Z}(G)|\) respectively;NEWLINENEWLINE (c) Every finite abelian group is isomorphic to \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\) for some Beauville surface \(S\);NEWLINENEWLINE (d) Every finite generalized dihedral group is isomorphic to \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\) for some Beauville surface \(S\) with an indirect automorphism.NEWLINENEWLINEThe author obtains these results by using the explicit description of \(S\) and results of \textit{D. Singerman} [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 6, 29--38 (1972; Zbl 0251.20052)] on inclusions between triangle groups and \textit{A. Lucchini} [Arch. Math. 73, No. 4, 241--248 (1999; Zbl 0944.20030)] on generators of special linear groups.











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