Automorphism groups of rational elliptic and quasi-elliptic surfaces in all characteristics (Q2125996)

This paper is concerned with the groups of automorphisms of rational algebraic surfaces that admit a relatively mnimal pencil of curves of arithmetic genus one over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. Let \(S\) be such a surface. The authors study the group \(\text{Aut}(S)\) by decomposing the group into subgroups that are easier to understand. Consider the natural homorphism \(\rho:\text{Aut}(S)\rightarrow O(\text{Pic}(S))\) describing the action on the Picard group of the surface, and let \(\text{Aut}_{ct}(S):=\text{Ker}(\rho)\) the subgroup of automorphisms acting trivially on the Picard group. The main part of the paper classifies all rational genus one surfaces with non-trivial group \(\text{Aut}_{ct}(S)\). This is technically challenging when the fibration of the surface does not coincide with its jacobian fibration. In order to classify these cases, the authors describe an explicit relationship between the automorphism group of a cohomologically flat genus one surface and the automorphism group of its jacobian. As a consequence, the authors classify Enriques surfaces over a field of characteristic 2 with non-trivial canonical class that admit non-trivial numerically trivial automorphisms. Note that this case was missing in [\textit{I. Dolgachev} and \textit{G. Martin}, J. Math. Soc. Japan 71, No. 4, 1181--1200 (2019; Zbl 1432.14032)].