A note on degenerations of fibered surfaces (Q1359389)

This papers studies the degenerations of complex compact surfaces admitting fibrations over curves. Let \(\Delta\) be the complex unit disk and let \(\Delta^*\) be the complement of the origin. Let \({\mathcal X}\) be a smooth complex threefold with a surjective proper map \(\Pi:{\mathcal X}\to\Delta\) smooth over \(\Delta^*\), and whose central fiber is a divisor with normal crossings. Assume a smooth fiber \({\mathcal X}_t\) has a morphism \(f\) onto an algebraic curve \(C\) of genus at least \(2\); the problem is to find a relative curve \({\mathcal Y}\to\Delta\) with \({\mathcal Y}_t=C\), through which \(\Pi\) factors, and such that the induced map \({\mathcal X}_t\to {\mathcal Y}_t\) is \(f\). Using hyperbolic embeddings of curves, it is shown that it is enough to extend \(f\) to a morphism from \({\mathcal X}^*\) onto a smooth curve \({\mathcal Y}^*\to\Delta^*\). An infinitesimal calculation shows that such an extension always exists locally. Under the additional assumption that the monodromy on \(H^1({\mathcal X}_t,{\mathbb{C}})\) is unipotent, it is shown that these local extensions glue together to yield an extension over \(\Delta^*\).