Nonalgebraic compactifications of quotients of the cylinder (Q1937190)

The paper under review is a contribution to the Global Spherical Shell Conjecture which claims that each minimal smooth compact complex surface \(S\) in class VII\(^+\) (\(b_1(S)=1\), \(\kappa(S)=-\infty\), \(b_2(S)>0\)) contains a global spherical shell (GSS), i.e., an open set \(U\) biholomorphic to a neighborhood of \(S^3\) in \(\mathbb C^2\backslash\{0\}\) such that \(S\backslash U\) is connected. The author considers a surface \(S\) as above, but not necessarily minimal. He proves that \(S\) contains a GSS if it contains a Zariski open subset \(U\varsubsetneq S\) whose universal cover is biholomorphic to the cylinder \(\mathbb D\times\mathbb C\). If \(S\) is not minimal it is a blow up of its minimal model in finitely many points belonging to rational curves. Under the given assumption the Zariski closed set \(C:=S\backslash U\) is a divisor in \(S\). The author uses the natural holomorphic foliation of \(S\) induced by the vertical foliation of \(\mathbb D\times\mathbb C\) and shows that the leaves of this foliation are contained in the leaves of a foliation of real codimension one which is nonsingular on \(U\) and which can be controlled in a neighborhood of \(C\). This enables him to compute the Euler Characteristic \(\chi(S)=b_2(S)\) and to show that this number equals the number of rational curves in \(C\). Finally he uses the affirmative answer to the Kato conjecture given by \textit{G. Dloussky, K. Oeljeklaus} and \textit{M. Toma} [Tohoku Math. J., II. Ser. 55, No. 2, 283--309 (2003; Zbl 1034.32012)], stating that a minimal surface \(S\) in class VII\(^+\) contains a GSS if it contains (at least) \(b_2(S))\) rational curves. The above result combined with classification theorems of \textit{I. Nakamura} [Sûgaku 36, 110--124 (1984; Zbl 0605.14036)] and \textit{A. Teleman} [Int. J. Math. 5, No.2, 253--264 (1994; Zbl 0803.53038)] yields the following corollary: Let \(X\) be a connected compact complex surface of algebraic dimension \(a(X)=0\) and assume that \(X\) contains a Zariski open subset \(U\varsubsetneq X\) whose universal cover is biholomorphic to the cylinder \(\mathbb D\times\mathbb C\). Then \(X\) belongs to class VII; it is an Inoue surface with \(b_2(X)=0\) or contains a GSS.