Double coverings of rational surface (Q1197368)

Let \(K\) be a purely transcendental extension of a field \(k\) with two variables. The purpose of this paper is to classify fields \(\{L\}\) which are quadratic extensions of \(K\). Let \(S\) be a nonsingular model of \(L\). There exist \(z\in L\) and a reduced polynomial \(f(x,y)\in K[x,y]\) satisfying \(L=K(z)\) where \(z^ 2=f(x,y)\). Put \(x=z_ 1/z_ 0\), \(y=z_ 2/z_ 0\) and \(F(z_ 0,z_ 1,z_ 2)=z_ 0^ d f(z_ 1/z_ 0,z_ 2/z_ 0)\) where \(d=\deg(f)\). Let \(C\) be the curve \(F=0\) in the projective plane \(P^ 2\) with homogeneous coordinates \((z_ 0,z_ 1,z_ 2)\). The author shows the following results: 1) If \(L/K\) is a quadratic extension, then the field \(L\) can be written as \(K(\sqrt{f(x,y)})\) where \(f(x,y)\) is a reduced polynomial of even degree such that \(f=0\) in \(P^ 2\) has at most ordinary singularities. 2) Abelian and hyperelliptic surfaces cannot be birationally equivalent to double coverings of \(P^ 2\). Except those, every class of the Enriques-Kodaira classification has a surface which is a model of a quadratic extension \(L\) of \(K\). 3) If \(e\geq 4+\sum_{i=1}^ r(n_ i-1)\), then \(S\) is a minimal surface of general type where \(d=2e\), \(r\) is the number of singular points, \(P_ i\), \(m_ i=\text{mult}_{P_ i}(C)\) and \(n_ i=[m_ i/2]\), \(i=1,\dots,r\). Moreover the inequality \(c_ 1^ 2/c_ 2<1/2\) holds true for \(S\) where \(c_ i=c_ i(S)\) is the \(i\)th Chern class of \(S\), \(i=1,2\). 4) If \(e\geq 1+\sum_{i=1}^ r n_ i\), then \(q=0\) where \(q=q(S)=\dim H^ 1(S,{\mathcal O})\). The paper contains several other results involving properties of \(S\) and numerical inequalities.