On pluri-canonical systems of arithmetic surfaces (Q276063)

Let \(S\) be a Dedekind scheme and \(f: X\to S\) be a regular surface fibered onto \(S\) with fibers of genus \(\geq 2\). The relative canonical bundle \(\omega_{X/S}\) may not be ample, due to the presence of \(-2\)-curves in the fibers, but passing to the relative canonical model \(f': X'\to S\) one obtains a mildly singular surface such that \(\omega_{X'/S}\) is relatively ample. So it is natural to ask for what \(n\) the line bundle \(\omega_{X'/S}^{\otimes n}\) is relatively very ample. When \(X=X'\) is smooth, then it is easy to check that this is true for \(n\geq 3\). In this paper it is proven that, much more generally, \(\omega_{X'/S}^{\otimes n}\) is relatively very ample for \(n\geq 3\) if the residue field of every closed point of \(S\) is a perfect field. This last assumption is quite weak and it is not known whether it is necessary.