Numerical Godeaux surfaces with an involution in positive characteristic (Q2258624)

\textit{L. Godeaux} [Atti Accad. Naz. Lincei, Rend., VI. Ser. 14, 479--481 (1931; Zbl 0004.01703; JFM 57.0838.02)] gave the first example of a minimal surface of general type with geometric genus \(p_g=0\) by considering a quotient of a quintic surface in the complex projective space \(\mathbb P^3\) by a freely acting cyclic group of order \(5\) of projective transformations. For this surface the self-intersection of the canonical divisor is \(K^2=1\). Nowadays a surface of general type with the same values of the invariants is called a \textit{numerical Godeaux surface}. Among these surfaces, the ones admitting an involution have been classified by the work of \textit{J. Keum} and \textit{Y. Lee} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 129, No. 2, 205--216 (2000; Zbl 1024.14019)] and \textit{A. Calabri} et al. [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 359, No. 4, 1605--1632 (2007; Zbl 1124.14036)]. They show that such surfaces are birationally equivalent either to double covers of Enriques surfaces or to double planes, describing the two possibilities for their plane models. A numerical Godeaux surface over \(\mathbb C\) has \(p_g=q=0\), but \(p_g=q=1\) can occur in characteristic \(p=2,3\) or \(5\). In the paper under review it is shown that if the characteristic is \(p\geq 5\), then the situation is analogous to the complex case: the order of the torsion group is at most \(5\) and the quotient by an involution is either birational to an Enriques surface or is a rational surface. Moreover, there are given examples in characteristic \(5\) of quintic surfaces in \(\mathbb P^3\) with a free action of a group \(G\cong\mathbb Z/5\mathbb Z\) and having extra symmetry by \(\mathrm{Aut }G\cong\mathbb Z/4\mathbb Z\).