Wahl maps and extensions of canonical curves and \(K3\) surfaces (Q1985542)

For any smooth projective curve anticanonically embedded \(C\subset \mathbb {P}^{g-1}\) let \(\Phi_C: \wedge ^2(K_C) \to H^0(K_C^{\otimes 3})\) denote its Wahl map. Assume \(g\ge 11\) and that \(C\) has Clifford index \(\ge 3\). The authors prove that \(C\) is a linear section of an arithmetically Gorenstein variety \(Y\subset \mathbb {P}^{g-1+r}\), \(Y\) not a cone, if \(\dim \mathrm{Coker}(\Phi_C) =r+1\). Let \((S,L)\) be a polarized K3 surface. The same result (extension of \(S\) as a linear section of \(Y\subset \mathbb {P}^{g+r}\)) is proved if \(r\) is the corank of the Gauss-Wahl map of \(H^0(T_S\otimes L^\vee)\) is \(r\) with corollaries if \((X,L)\) has Clifford index \(>2\) and genus \(g\ge 11\). Among the many corollaries there are strong lower bounds for the corank of the Wahl map of the normalization of plane curves with some prescribed singularities, giving an affermative answer in these case to a conjecture in [\textit{J. Wahl}, J. Differential Geom. 32, No. 1, 77--98 (1990; Zbl 0724.14022)]. The proofs use results in [\textit{E. Arbarello} et al., Algebr. Geom. 4, No. 5, 562--596 (2017; Zbl 1403.14068)].