Semistable fibrations over an elliptic curve with only one singular fibre (Q2176712)

The article under review is concerned with semi-stable fibrations over an elliptic curve, most notably the construction of such fibrations with only one singular fibre. Note that this disputes a claim in [\(\textit{A. N. Parshin}\), Sov. Math., Dokl. 9, 1419--1422 (1968; Zbl 0176.50903); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 183, 524--526 (1968)], according to which a non-isotrivial fibration over an elliptic curve had to have at least two singular fibres. Moreover, some basic constraints on the numerical invariants of semi-stable fibrations with elliptic base and only one singular fibre are established. Let \(S\) be a smooth complex projective surface with a fibration \(\phi\colon S\to E\) over an elliptic curve; that is to say, \(\phi\) is a morphism with connected fibres. Unless all the fibres are isomorphic, at least one of them has to be singular then. The fibration is called semi-stable if the fibres are reduced, have at worst nodal singularities and do not contain \((-1)\)-curves. The general construction proceeds as follows: As above, let \(E\) be an elliptic curve; we fix an origin \(0_E\in E\). Moreover, let \(C\) be a smooth projective curve of genus \(g_C>1\). What the authors show is that every primitive (indecomposable and non-étale) covering morphism \(f\colon C\to E\) of degree \(d\) gives rise to a fibration via the difference map \(\phi\colon S=C\times C\to E\), \((a,b)\mapsto f(a)-f(b)\); the general fibre is smooth of genus \(2(g_C-1)d+1\). If, moreover, \(0_E\) is the only branch point of \(f\) and if the ramification divisor is reduced, then the difference map \(\phi\) is indeed a semi-stable fibration with only one singular fibre. By elementary covering theory, the primitive coverings of degree \(d\) over \(E\) which are branched only at \(0_E\) correspond to the transitive, primitive subgroups \(G\subset S_d\) of the symmetric group on \(d\) letters which are generated by two elements \(\alpha,\beta\in S_d\). For the ramification divisor to be reduced, their commutator \([\alpha,\beta]\) must be a product of disjoint transpositions. To complete the construction, the authors give some explicit examples of such groups. E.g., the subgroup of \(S_4\) generated by the cycles \((123)\) and \((234)\), where the corresponding curve \(C\) has genus \(g_C=2\) and so the resulting fibration has genus \(9\).