On canonical curves and osculating spaces. (Q1602673)

In the paper under review, the author studies reduced canonical curves with a nondegenerate component. First he proves that the other components are rational and satisfy a certain configuration. Then, given a nonsingular point on a nondegenerate component, he analyzes the relationships between the Weierstrass semigroup and the intersection divisor of the osculating spaces with the curve. Finally, the author gives an upper bound for the degree of these divisors and studies in detail the curves that actually attain this bound. The main techniques used in the paper are associated to the construction, due to \textit{K.-O. Oliveira} and \textit{G. Stöhr} [Geom. Dedicata 67, No. 1, 65--82 (1997; Zbl 0904.14019)] of a compactification of Pinkham's moduli space of pointed curves of genus \(g\) whose Weierstrass semigroup at the distinguished point is given [see \textit{H. C. Pinkham}, Astérisque 20, 1--131 (1974; Zbl 0304.14006)].