Singular fibers and Kodaira dimensions (Q1709781)

A non-isotrivial family \(f:S \to \mathbb P^1\) of curves of genus \(g\) has a certain number \(s\) of singular fibers. What is the smallest possible \(s\)? \textit{A. Beauville} [Astérisque 86, 97--108 (1981; Zbl 0502.14009)] proved that \(f\) admits at least 3 singular fibers, and if the fibration is semi-stable, then \(s\geq 4\). Both results are sharp. Later on \textit{S.-L. Tan} et al. [Math. Z. 249, No. 2, 427--438 (2005; Zbl 1074.14009)] proved: if \(g\geq 2\) and \(S\) has non negative Kodaira dimension, then \(s\geq 6\). They also provided 2 examples: A) \(S\) is a \(K3\) surface, \(g=3\) and \(s=6\); B) \(S\) is of general type, \(g=4\) and \(s=7\). The main result of this paper is the following. Theorem 1. Let \(f:S \to \mathbb P^1\) be a non-isotrivial semi-stable fibration of curves of genus \(g\geq 2\). If \(S\) is of general type, then \(f\) has at least 7 singular fibers. The proof relies on an analysis of the semi-stable fibrations coming from Teichmüller curves. In particular the author use a result of \textit{M. Möller} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 19, No. 2, 327--344 (2006; Zbl 1090.32004)] to obtain the following. Corollary 1. Let \(f:S \to \mathbb P^1\) be a semi-stable fibration of curves of genus \(g\geq 2\) and \(s=6\). If \(p_g(S)>0\), then \(f\) comes form a Teichmüller curve and \(\omega^2_{S/\mathbb{P}^1}\leq 6g-6\). As other applications of this corollary they obtain the following theorems. Theorem 2. Let \(f:S \to \mathbb P^1\) be a non-isotrivial semi-stable fibration of curves of genus \(g\geq 2\). If \(S\) has Kodaira dimension \(\kappa(S)=0\) and \(s=6\), then \(\omega^2_{S/\mathbb{P}^1}= 6g-6\) and the family is Teichmüller. Theorem 3. Let \(f:S \to \mathbb P^1\) be a non-isotrivial semi-stable fibration of curves of genus \(g\geq 2\). If \(S\) has Kodaira dimension \(\kappa(S)=1\) and \(s=6\), then \(S\) is simply connected, \(p_g(S)=q(S)=0\) and the canonical elliptic fibration has exaclty 2 multiple fibers: a double fiber and one of multiplicity 3 or 5. It is not clear if this case does occur. In the last section the authors use the Arakelov type inequality in [\textit{J. Lu} et al., Math. Ann. 368, No. 3--4, 1311--1332 (2017; Zbl 1401.14054)] to derive similar results for fibrations \(f:X\to \mathbb{P}^1\) in any dimension. Theorem 4. Let \(f:X\to \mathbb{P}^1\) be a non-isotrivial semi-stable family of varieties of dimension \(m\) over \(\mathbb P^1\) with \(s\) singular fibers. Assume that the smooth fibers \(F\) are minimal, i.e., their canonical line bundles are semiample. Then \(\kappa(X)\leq \kappa(F)+1\). Moreover, if \(\kappa(X)\geq 0\), then \(s\geq \dfrac 4m +2\), and if \(\kappa(X)= \kappa(F)+1\), then \(s> \dfrac 4m +2\).