Bielliptic surfaces as covers of rational surfaces (Q2577003)

Bielliptic (or hyperelliptic) surfaces fill a class in the Enriques classification of projective surfaces: namely they represent surfaces with Kodaira dimension \(1\) and irregularity \(q=1\). Classically, a bielliptic surface \(X\) is constructed as a quotient of the cartesian product of two elliptic curves. The name comes indeed from the two elliptic fibrations that the product induces on \(X\). The author presents a new construction for bielliptic surfaces. He start with a rational elliptic surface, i.e. a surface \(R\) fibered over \(\mathbb P^1\) with a pencil of elliptic curves, having two singular fibers, with normal crossing. Then, taking an elliptic curve \(D\) and a particular degree \(n\) cover \(f:D\to \mathbb P^1\), one find a bielliptic surface \(X\) as the minimal model of a normalization of the product \(D\times_{\mathbb P^1} R\). The new construction has applications to the study of degenerations of bielliptic surfaces. In particular, Morrison's Type II degenerations are easy to describe, using this point of view.