Ample line bundles on blown up surfaces (Q1906509)

In this note we give an answer to the following question: Given a smooth projective surface \(S\) over \(\mathbb{C}\) and an ample divisor \(H\) on \(S\), consider the blow up \(f : S' \to S\) of \(S\) along \(k\) points in general position. Let \(H' = f^* H\) and \(E_1, \ldots, E_k\) be the exceptional divisors. When is the divisor \(L = nH' - \sum^k_{i = 1} E_i\) ample? We show that the condition \(L^2 > 0\), which clearly is necessary, is also sufficient provided the integer \(n\) is at least 3. The basic idea is to study the situation on the surface \(S\) with variational methods.