On the slope of rational fibered surfaces (Q2176818)

In the present paper, the authors prove an inequality for the slope of a complex rational surface fibered over the projective line, provided that the genus of the general fibre is sufficiently high with respect to its gonality. More in details, let \(f\colon X\to B\) be a relatively minimal surface fibration of genus \(g\geq 2\) and denote by \(K_f:=K_X-f^*K_B\) its relative canonical divisor, by \(\chi_f:=\deg f_* K_f\) and by \(\lambda_f:=\frac{K_f^2}{\chi_f}\): the latter is called the slope and is an in important invariant for the fibration. The most important result in the study of the slope of a surface fibration states that \(\frac{4(g-1)}{g}\leq\lambda_f\leq 12\) [\textit{G. Xiao}, Math. Ann. 276, 449--466 (1987; Zbl 0596.14028)]. many improvements of this lower bound have been proved by various authors. In particular in [\textit{K. Konno}, J. Algebr. Geom. 8, No. 2, 207--220 (1999; Zbl 0979.14004)] it is proved that \(\lambda_f\geq\frac{6(g-1)}{g+1}\) provided that the general fibre is of maximal Clifford index and it is stated that ``Ashikaga conjectured that the lower bound of the slope of ``general'' fibrations of genus \(g\) is given as a function in \(g\) that approaches 6 from below as \(g\) grows''. In view of this the main Theorem of the present article states that given a relatively minimal fibration \(f\colon X\to\mathbb{P}^1\) on the rational surface \(X\) such that the general fibre has genus \(g\geq 2\) and gonality \(2n+3\) then \[ \lambda_f\geq\frac{6n+5}{n+1}-\frac{9n+12}{2g} \] provided that \(6(g-1)\geq 3n^3+20n^2+39n-2\). The proof of this Theorem splits into two parts: in the first part it is showed, using induction and the Zariski decomposition for effective divisors [\textit{O. Zariski}, Ann. Math. (2) 76, 560--615 (1962; Zbl 0124.37001)], that the inequality of the Theorem is satisfied whenever \(|(lK_X+F)_++K_X|\neq\emptyset\) for \(1\leq l\leq n\) and \(|(nK_X+F)_++K_X|\) defines a birational map where, for an effective divisor \(D\), \(D_+\) denotes the positive part of the Zariski decompostion of \(D\) and \(F\) is a fibre of \(f\). In the second part it is proved, using Reider's method [\textit{I. Reider}, Ann. Math. (2) 127, No. 2, 309--316 (1988; Zbl 0663.14010)], that, whenever \(6(g-1)\geq 3n^3+20n^2+39n-2\), then \(|(lK_X+F)_++K_X|\neq\emptyset\) for \(1\leq l\leq n\) and \(|(nK_X+F)_++K_X|\) defines a birational map, which completes the proof.