Weierstrass semigroups on Castelnuovo curves (Q2029244)

Let \(C\) be a smooth algebraic curve of genus \(g\), and \(p\) a point on \(C\). Then, the Weierstrass semigroup \(S(C,p)\) consists of the set of pole orders at \(p\) of rational functions on \(C\) regular away from \(p\). This semigroup has complement of size \(g\) in \(\mathbb{N}\), and so the number of its gaps is called its genus. The semigroups of genus \(g\) give a stratification of \(\mathcal{M}_{g,1}\) by subvarieties \(\mathcal{M}^S_{g,1}\). In the paper under review the irreducible components of \(\mathcal{M}^S_{g,1}\) are studied for those semigroups whose generators are a contiguous interval in \(\mathbb{N}\), say \(S_{r,d} = \langle d-r+1, d-r+2, \dots, d \rangle\) for \(r \geq 2, d \geq 2r-1\). These semigroups are called Castelnuovo semigroups by the author. The main result in the article is the following Theorem 1.1: Let \(r \geq 3, d \geq 2r+1\), and \(g\) be the genus of \(S_{r,d}.\) Then, the locus \(\mathcal{M}^{S_{r,d}}_{g,1}\) is nonempty, and each of its irreducible components \(X\) satisfies \(g+3 \leq \text{dim}X \leq \frac{4}{3}g+2\). Besides, if \(r \geq 4\) and \((r-1)|(d-1)\), or \(r=5\) and \(d\) even, then \(\mathcal{M}^{S_{r,d}}_{g,1}\) has two irreducible components of different dimensions; for distinct \(r\) and \(d\), \(\mathcal{M}^{S_{r,d}}_{g,1}\) is irreducible. This result is obtained as a corollary of the computation of the dimensions of the components of \(\mathcal{M}^{S_{r,d}}_{g,1}\), made in Theorem 5.6. The proof is based in Castelnuovo theory, since the author proves that that if \((C,p) \in \mathcal{M}^{S_{r,d}}_{g,1}\), then \(C\) can be embedded as a Castelnuovo curve of degree \(d\) in \(\mathbb{P}^r\) such that the osculating plane at \(p\) meets \(C\) at no other points. This justifies the name of Castelnuovo semigroups. The numerical exceptions in the assumptions of Theorem 1.1 are not a problem, because they lead to results already known. The effective weight of a numerical semigroup \(S\), \(\text{ewt}(S)\), is defined as \[\underset{b \in \mathbb{N} \setminus S} {\sum} \# (\text{generators}\ a\ \text{of}\ S, a < b).\] The study of this parameter was the reason of the author to consider Castelnuovo semigroups. This question is dealt in the final Section 6 of the article.