Surfaces whose canonical maps are of odd degrees (Q2277048)

Let X be a minimal complex surface of general type. Let \(\Phi_{K_ X}: X\to \Sigma \subset {\mathbb{P}}^{p_ g-1}\) be the canonical map of X. It is well known that if the image \(\Sigma\) is a surface, then either \((i)\;p_ g(\Sigma)=0\) or \((ii)\;\Sigma\) is a canonical surface. For a long time, it was an open problem that whether case (ii) can occur with \(\deg(\Phi_{K_ X})=3\) [see the survey paper of \textit{F. Catanese} in Algebraic geometry, Proc. Summer Res. Inst., Brunswick/Maine 1985, part I, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 46, 175-194 (1987; Zbl 0656.14021)]. In this paper, we construct a series of surfaces X of case (ii) such that \(\Phi_{K_ X}\) is a cyclic triple cover. We give also an example of case (ii) with \(\deg(\Phi_{K_ X})=5\) and one of case (i) with \(\deg(\Phi_{K_ X})=9\). As a by-product, we construct a new series of minimal surfaces S with \(K^ 2_ S=5\), \(p_ g(S)=q(S)=0\). But the following conjecture of Xiao Gang is still unsolved: there is no infinite family of surfaces X such that \(\Phi_{K_ X}\) is a cyclic triple cover of the image [cf. the problem list in: Birational geometry of algebraic varieties: Open problems, The 23rd Int. Symp. Taniguchi Foundation (to appear)]. Recently, for \(d=2, 3\) and 5, \textit{R. Pardini} [``Canonical images of surfaces of general type'' (preprint); see J. Reine Angew. Math. 417, 215-219 (1991; Zbl 0721.14020)] has independently given a surface \(X_ d\) of case (ii) with \(\deg(\Phi_{K_ X})=d\) by using abelian covers. The example \(X_ 5\) coincides with ours.