Subcanonical curves and complete intersections in projective 3-space (Q1061186)

A classical theorem of \textit{G. Gherardelli} [Atti Accad. Italia Rend., Cl. Sci. Fis. Mat. Natur., VII. Ser. 4, 128-132 (1942; Zbl 0061.358)] states: A smooth irreducible curve \(C\subset {\mathbb{P}}^ 3_{{\mathbb{C}}}\) \(({\mathbb{C}}=complex\) field) is complete intersection if and only if the following conditions are satisfied: (1) The canonical sheaf is \({\mathcal O}_ C(a)\), for some \(a\in {\mathbb{Z}}\) (in this case C is called a- subcanonical); (2) C is projectively normal: i.e. \(h^ 1({\mathcal J}_ C(t))=0\), all t, \({\mathcal J}_ C\) being the ideal sheaf of C. In the paper under review the authors weaken Gherardelli's hypothesis (2), showing that C is complete intersection in \({\mathbb{P}}^ 3_{{\mathbb{C}}}\) if and only if C is a-subcanonical and moreover (2') \(h^ 1({\mathcal J}_ C(b+1))=0\) where \(b=a/2\) if a is even, and \(b=either\) of the following three integers \((1+a)/2\), \((3+a)/2\), \((5+a)/2\) if a is odd. - With examples they show that there is no integer t, different from the above ones, such that \(h^ 1({\mathcal J}_ C(t))=0\) forces an a- subcanonical curve C to be complete intersection.