Degenerations of minimal ruled surfaces (Q755811)

This paper studies ruled degenerations of minimal ruled surfaces. The main theorem states as follows: Let \(\pi\) : \(X\to \Delta\) be a proper holomorphic map from a 3-fold X onto the unit disk \(\Delta\) in \({\mathbb{C}}\), which factors through a surface S. Thus \(\pi =\pi_ S\circ f\) for \(f:X\to S\) and \(\pi_ S: S\to \Delta\). Suppose that, for every \(t\neq 0\), \(X_ t=\pi^{-1}(t)\) and \(S_ t=\pi_ S^{-1}(t)\) are nonsingular and \(f_ t: X_ t\to S_ t\) is a \({\mathbb{P}}^ 1\)-bundle, and that \(X_ 0\) and \(S_ 0\) are set-theoretically unions of non-singular divisors meeting normally. Then, there is a birational mapping \(X\to \tilde X\), which is an isomorphism off \(X_ 0\) and is composed of blow-ups and blow-downs, such that \(\tilde X\) is a \({\mathbb{P}}^ 1\)-bundle over S by the map induced by f. Moreover, if \(S\to \bar S\) is a smooth minimal model of S over \(\Delta\), there is a birational map \(\tilde X\to \bar X\) such that \(\bar X\) is a \({\mathbb{P}}^ 1\)-bundle over S. The proof uses the theory of conic bundles. Unfortunately, there is an error in the argument in (2.3), and the above assertion is not fully correct. The author communicated to the reviewer that he is going to write a correction.