On irrationality of surfaces in \(\mathbb{P}^3\) (Q2401624)

The gonality of a smooth complex projective \(C\) is the smallest integer \(\delta\) such that there exists a non-constant map \(C\to \mathbb P^1\) of degree \(\delta\), and it can be thought as a measure of how far the curve \(C\) is from being rational. The natural generalization of gonality to higher-dimensional varieties is the \textit{degree of irrationality}: for \(X\) a smooth complex projective variety of dimension \(n\), it is defined as \[ \mathrm{irr}(X):=\min\{\delta\in \mathbb N \mid \exists \text{ a dominant rational map } X \dashrightarrow \mathbb P^n \text{ of degree } \delta\}\,, \] and it is 1 if and only if the variety is rational. The notion of rationality can be relaxed in several ways: \[ \text{rational}\Longrightarrow \text{stably rational}\Longrightarrow \text{unirational}\Longrightarrow \text{rationally connected}\Longrightarrow \text{uniruled}\,, \] and one can define accordingly the following invariants: \[ \mathrm{stab.irr}(X):=\min\left\{\mathrm{irr}(X\times \mathbb P^m) \mid m \in \mathbb N \right\}\,, \] \[ \mathrm{uni.irr}(X):=\min\left\{\mathrm{irr}(Y) \left | \begin{aligned} \exists \text{ a dominant rational map } Y \dashrightarrow X\,,\\ \text{ with }\dim Y = \dim X \end{aligned}\right. \right\}\,, \] \[ \mathrm{cov.gon}(X):=\min\left\{c\in\mathbb N \left| \begin{aligned} \text{Given a general point } x \in X, \exists \text{ an irreducibe curve } \\ C\subset X\,,\text{ s.t. } x\in C \text{ and } \mathrm{gon}(C)=c \end{aligned}\right. \right\}\,, \] \[ \mathrm{uni.gon}(X):=\min\left\{c\in\mathbb N \left| \begin{aligned} \text{Given two general points } x,y \in X, \exists \text{ an irreducibe curve } \\ C\subset X\,,\text{ s.t. } x,y\in C \text{ and } \mathrm{gon}(C)=c \end{aligned}\right. \right\}\,, \] being \(\mathrm{gon} (C)\) the gonality of the normalization of \(C\). Each one of these invariants can be thought as a measure of the failure of \(X\) to satisfy the corresponding rationality property, and they fit in the chain of inequalities: \[ \mathrm{irr}(X) \geq \mathrm{stab.irr}(X) \geq \mathrm{uni.irr}(X) \geq \mathrm{conn.gon}(X) \geq \mathrm{cov.gon}(X). \] In the paper under review, the author characterizes these invariant for smooth surfaces \(S\subseteq \mathbb P^3\) and using some results of [\textit{F. Bastianelli} et al., J. Algebr. Geom. 23, No. 2, 313--339 (2014; Zbl 1317.14029)] and [\textit{A. F. Lopez} and \textit{G. P. Pirola}, Math. Z. 219, No. 1, 93--106 (1995; Zbl 0842.14008)] derives the following picture. Let \(S\subset \mathbb P^3\) be a smooth surface of degree \(d\), if \(d \geq 5\) (Theorem 1.3), then \begin{itemize} \item[i)] \(\mathrm{cov.gon}(S) = \mathrm{conn.gon}(S)=d-2\); \item[ii)] \(\mathrm{uni.irr}(S) =\begin{cases} d-2 & \text{if \(S\) contains a rational curve},\\ d-1 & \text{else}; \end{cases}\) \item[iii)] \(\mathrm{stab.irr}(S)=\mathrm{irr}(S):=\begin{cases} d-2 & \text{if \(S\) contains a twisted cubic},\\ d-2 & \text{if \(S\) contains a rational curve \(R\) of degree \(r\)} \\ & \text{and a line \(l\) which is \((r-1)\)-secant to \(R\),}\\ d-1 & \text{else}. \end{cases}\) \end{itemize} If \(d=4\) (Remark 3.3), then \begin{itemize} \item[i)] \(\mathrm{cov.gon}(S) = \mathrm{conn.gon}(S)=\mathrm{uni.irr}(S)=2\); \item[ii)] \(2\leq \mathrm{stab.irr}(S)\leq 3\); \item[iii)] \(\mathrm{irr}(S):=\begin{cases} 2 & \text{if \(S\) contains a smooth hyperelliptic curve of genus } g \geq 2, \\ 3 & \text{else}. \end{cases}\) \end{itemize}