Branched coverings of surfaces with ample cotangent bundle (Q1326972)

A vector bundle \(E\) on an algebraic variety \(X\) is said to be ample if the tautological line bundle \({\mathcal O}(1)\) on the projective bundle \(\mathbb{P}(E)\) is ample. -- Surfaces with ample cotangent bundle are automatically of general type. \textit{F. Hirzebruch} [in Arithmetic and Geometry, Vol. 2: Geometry, Prog. Math. 36, 113-140 (1983; Zbl 0527.14033)] has constructed many interesting surfaces of general type as the desingularizations of certain Galois covers of the projective plane, branched on a union (``arrangement'') of lines, and \textit{A. Sommese} [Math. Ann. 268, 207-221 (1984; Zbl 0534.14020)] has characterized the arrangements which give rise to surfaces with ample cotangent bundle. The main results of the paper under review is a criterion stating that if \(f:X \to Y\) is a finite map between smooth surfaces, branched over a normal crossing divisor with smooth components, and if \(Y\) has ample canonical bundle, then \(X\) has ample canonical bundle iff each component of the ramification divisor in \(X\) has strictly negative self intersection. The criterion is established by applying the Nakai criterion for the ampleness of a line bundle. -- Using this result, the author is able to produce new examples of surfaces with ample canonical bundles, that are constructed as double covers of some Hirzebruch surfaces.