Brill-Noether theory of curves on \( \mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1\): tropical and classical approaches (Q2421562)

Let \(C\) be a smooth projective curve of genus \(g\ge 4\). For each positive integer \(r\) let \(d_r(C)\) denote the minimal degree \(d\) such that \(C\) has a \(g^r_d\). The sequence \(\{d_r(C)\}_{r\ge 1}\) is called the gonality sequence of \(C\). It was previously known for very few classes, e.g. curves with general moduli or smooth plane curves or curves with very low gonality. Here the authors compute the gonality sequence of all smooth curves contained in a smooth quadric surface \(\mathbb {P}^1\times \mathbb {P}^1\). They give two proofs: one using the cohomology of \(\mathbb {P}^1\times \mathbb {P}^1\) and one using tropical geometry.