Deformations of canonical triple covers (Q2630878)

In the paper under review the authors consider the following situation: let \(X\) be a smooth varieties of general type of dimension \(m\geq 3\) for which the canonical map induces a triple cover onto \(Y\), where \(Y\) is either a projective bundle over \(\mathbb P^1\) or a projective space or a quadric hypersurface, embedded by a complete linear series (except \(\mathbb Q_3\) embedded in \(\mathbb P^4\)). They prove that the general member of a deformation of the canonical morphism of \(X\) with base a smooth curve is again canonical and induces a triple cover. Giving explicit examples, they also find components of the moduli of threefolds \(X\) of general type with \( K^3_X= 3p_g- 9\), \(K^3_X \neq 6\), whose general members correspond to canonical triple covers. In the paper under review the authors also prove that for an algebraic surface of general type, there are no canonical triple covers of rational scrolls \(Y\) or a quadric surface \(\mathbb Q_2\) or non-linearly embedded \(\mathbb P^2\), whether they are embedded as a variety of minimal degree or not. They give special emphasis on those \(Y\) which are varieties of minimal degree because this case does not occur in either curves or surfaces. Indeed, the degree of the canonical morphism for curves is bounded by 2, and there are no odd degree canonical covers of smooth surfaces of minimal degree other than linear \(\mathbb P^2\) as shown in [\textit{F. J. Gallego} and \textit{B. P. Purnaprajna}, in: A tribute to C. S. Seshadri. A collection of articles on geometry and representation theory. Basel: Birkhäuser. 241--270 (2003; Zbl 1067.14015)].