Rolling factors deformations and extensions of canonical curves (Q5936752)

It is well known [see \textit{J. M. Wahl}, Duke Math. J. 55, 843-871 (1987; Zbl 0644.14001) and \textit{C. Ciliberto, J. Harris} and \textit{R. Miranda}, ibid. 57, No. 3, 829-858 (1988; Zbl 0684.14009)] that the general canonical curve of genus 10 or of genus \(\geq 12\) has only trivial projective extensions, i.e. the only projective extensions of such a curve are cones. In particular, the general canonical curve of genus \(g\geq 10\), \(g\neq 11\), cannot lie on a \(K3\) surface. In this paper the author studies in detail the deformations of tetragonal canonical curves. Such a curve is the complete intersection of two divisors on a scroll and its equations can be written in ``rolling factors'' format. The author gives explicit methods to compute the infinitesimal deformations of the homogeneous ideals of tetragonal curves using their homogeneous equations in rolling factors format, and shows that these deformations can be obstructed. Then he uses these deformations to study the projective extensions of tetragonal curves. The structure of projective extensions of a tetragonal curve can be very complicated. For example, the author proves that the general tetragonal curve of genus \(15\) is a hyperplane section of \(256\) different \(K3\) surfaces.