Fibred surfaces, varieties isogenous to a product and related moduli spaces (Q4943232)

The study of fibrations of a smooth algebraic surface over a smooth algebraic curve is important for the classification theory and the geometry of algebraic surfaces. The main results in this paper concern a topological characterization of surfaces admitting a constant moduli fibration, i.e., all the smooth fibres are isomorphic. At first, by using the results of Seiberg-Witten theory, a conjecture raised by the same author in a previous paper is proved (theorem A): The fibrations with the genera of fibre and base curve greater than 1 are invariant under the oriented diffeomorphism. More precisely, let \(f:S\rightarrow B\) be a fibration where the genera of fibre and base curve \(B\) are all greater than 1, \(S'\) be a smooth compact Kähler surface which is orientedly diffeomorphic to \(S\), then there is a fibration \(f':S'\rightarrow B'\) such that the genera of its fibre and the base curve \(B'\) are the same as that of \(f\). It is known that a constant moduli fibration \(f:S\rightarrow B\) is bimeromorphic to a quotient \(C_1\times C_2/G\) where \(C_i\) are curves, \(G\) is a finite group. A surface is said to be isogenous to a product if \(S\) admits a finite unramified covering which is isomorphic to a product of curves \(C_1\times C_2\) of genera \(g_i=g(C_i)\geq 1\). In the case where each \(g_i\geq 2\), \(S\) is said to be isogenous to a higher product. Then the author gives a characterization of surfaces isogenous to a higher product in terms of the fundamental group and the Euler number (theorem B): \(S\) is isogenous to a higher product if and only if \(\pi_1(S)\) admits a finite index subgroup which is isomorphic to a direct product \(\Pi_{g_1} \times \Pi_{g_2}\) of fundamental groups of curves of genera \(g_1,g_2>1\), and the Euler number \(e(S)=4(g_1-1)(g_2-1)/d\) where \(d\) is the index of the subgroup. Moreover, the moduli space \(\mathcal M(\pi_1(S),e(S))\) is irreducible. The stronger result (theorem C) states: Let \(\Pi\) be a group such that \[ 1\rightarrow \Pi_{g_1}\times\Pi_{g_2}\rightarrow \Pi\rightarrow G\rightarrow 1 \] is an exact sequence with a finite group \(G\) of order \(d\), then under some more natural conditions, the moduli space \(\mathcal M(\Pi,4(g_1-1)(g_2-1)/d)\) is nonempty and irreducible. These two theorems are sharpenings of two earlier theorems of \textit{J. Jost} and \textit{S.-T. Yau} [cf. J. Math. 115, No. 6, 1197-1227 (1993; Zbl 0824.14008)]. The main theorems D and E characterize surfaces carrying constant moduli fibrations as surfaces having a Zariski open set satisfying certain topological conditions: i.e., having the right Euler number, the right fundamental group and the right fundamental group at infinity. Furthermore, the result of theorem B is extended to higher dimension in theorems G and H, and generalizes results of Jost-Yau and Mok concerning varieties whose universal cover is a polydisk.