Semi-stable fibrations of generic \(p\)-rank 0 (Q846891)

If \(\pi:X\to C\) is a semi-stable fibration from a proper smooth surface to a proper smooth curve over the complex numbers, then all quotient bundles of \(\pi_* \omega_{X/C}\) are of non-negative degree, see \textit{G. Xiao} [Surfaces fibrées en courbes de genre deux. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. 1137. Springer-Verlag. (1985; Zbl 0579.14028)]. This semi-positivity theorem is in general not true over a field of positive characteristic \(p\), with a first counterexample constructed by \textit{L. Moret-Bailly} [Astérisque 86, 125--140 (1981; Zbl 0515.14007)]. Nonetheless, if the generic \(p\)-rank of the fibration is maximal, then the semi-positivity theorem still holds, see \textit{J. Jang} [``Generic ordinarity for semi-stable fibration'', \url{arXiv:0805.3982}]. The present article shows that the semi-positivity theorem always fails in characteristic \(p\) if the generic \(p\)-rank of the fibration is \(0\) and the genus of \(C\) is less than two. This leads to a host of examples for which the semi-positivity theorem fails. A further application concerns the distribution of \(p\)-ranks of reductions in the moduli space of curves over a number field.