Coble surfaces in characteristic two (Q6144608)

A Coble surface \(S\) is a smooth projective rational surface with \(|-K_S|=\emptyset\) and \(|-2K_S|=B_1+B_2+\cdots+B_n\) where \(B_i\) are smooth rational curves with \(B_i\cap B_j=\emptyset\). A Coble surface appears as a degeneration of Enriques surfaces. Any Coble surface has a canonical double cover \(\pi: X\to S\). The purpose of this paper is to determine which types of Coble surfaces with finite automorphism group exist in characteristic \(2\). The main result is that there are exactly \(9\) types of such surfaces. This is done by studying double coverings \(\pi\). Rational curves \(B_1,\cdots B_n\) defined above are called the boundary components of \(S\). Define a canonical \(1\)-form \(\eta\) on \(S\) by \((\eta)=-\sum_{i=1}^n B_i+B\) where \((\sum B_i)\cap B=\emptyset\) and \(B=2A\) for a divisor \(A\). \(A\) is called the conductrix of \(S\). A detailed study of the conductrix yields the first classification results. Theorem 1: (1) Assume that \(A=0\). Then the singularity of \(X\) are all rational double points and the minimal non-singular model of \(X\) is a supersingular \(K3\) surface. (2) Assume that \(A\neq 0\). Then \(A\) is a rational surface, \(A^2=-2\) and the isolated singularities of \(X\) are all rational double points of type \(A_1\) and the number of isolated singularities is equal to \(4-n\). Next Coble surfaces with finite automorphism groups are classified. For this, the authors consider a Coble-Mukai lattice \(CM(S)\) of signature \((1,9)\) defined by the orthogonal complement of \(B_1,\cdots, B_n\) in the quadratic space generated by the Néron-Severi lattice \(NS(S)\) and \(\frac{1}{2}B_1,\cdots, \frac{1}{2}B_n\). An effective class \(\alpha\) in \(CM(S)\) is called an effective root, and an effective root is irrreducible if \(|\alpha-\beta|=\emptyset\) for any other effective root \(\beta\). The second classification results are formulated in the following theorem, which classifies Coble surfaces with finite automorphism groups. Theorem 2: Coble surfaces with finite automorphism group in characteristic \(2\) are classified by the types of the dual graph of irreducible roots, the automorphism group \(Aut(S)\) of \(S\), the number \(n\) of boundary components, and the dimension of the moduli space of Coble surfaces. There are seven types of Coble surfaces corresponding to \(\tilde{E_8}, \tilde{E_7}+\tilde{A_1}^{(1)}, \tilde{E_7}+\tilde{A_1}^{(2)}, \tilde{E_6}+\tilde{A_2},\tilde{D_8}, VII\) and \(VIII\). The moduli space of Coble surfaces with \(n\in\{1,2\cdots, 10\}\) boundary components of each type is irreducible and of dimension \(0\) or \(1\). Every Coble surface with finite automorphism group (\(\mathbf{Z}/n\mathbf{Z},S_3, S_4, S_5)\) is a specialization of classical Enriques surafces with finite automorphism group. \smallskip The proof of classification of possible dual graphs of Coble surfaces is the same as that for Enriques surfaces given in [\textit{T. Katsura} et al., Algebr. Geom. 7, No. 4, 390--459 (2020; Zbl 1452.14038)].