Xiao's conjecture on canonically fibered surfaces (Q1678162)

Let \(S\) be a complex surface of general type whose canonical map is composed with a pencil, and let \(f: S\to C\) be the fibration induced by the canonical map of \(S\). It is known that, the genus \(g\) of a general fiber \(F\) of \(f\) is \(\leq5\) if \(p_g(S)\geq20\) [\textit{A. Beauville}, Invent. Math. 55, 121--140 (1979; Zbl 0403.14006)] and the genus \(b\) of \(C\) is \(\leq1\) [Bull. Soc. Math. Fr. 113, 23--51 (1985; Zbl 0611.14031)]. \textit{G. Xiao} conjectured that if \(p_g(S)\) is sufficiently large then the case \(g=5\) does not occur. This conjecture was verified by \textit{X. Sun} [Manuscr. Math. 83, No. 2, 161--169 (1994; Zbl 0827.14026)] in the cases either \(F\) is hyperelliptic or \(b=1\). In the paper under review the author treats the remaining case and completes the proof of Xiao's conjecture. The idea of the proof is to do a careful analysis on a pseudo relative canonical model of \(f\) and reduce the problem to an inequality on a certain type of double surface singularities.