On the Castelnuovo-Severi inequality for Riemann surfaces (Q862165)

Let \(W_g\), \(W_h\) and \(W_k\) be compact Riemann surfaces of genus \(g\), \(h\) and \(k\), respectively, such that \(W_g\) is a covering of \(W_h\) of degree \(m\), and a covering of \(W_k\) of degree \(n\), and assume that this coverings do not admit a common, nontrivial factorization (as it happens, e.g.\ if \(m\) and \(n\) are coprime); the author of the paper under review denotes such a setting by \(\mathrm{Iv}(g; h, m; k, n)\) (where ``Iv'' stands for ``inverted v'', a reference to the diagram usually drawn when dealing with such coverings). In the present paper the author studies the existence of a Riemann surface \(W_\ell\) (of genus \(\ell\)) which is covered by \(W_h\) (a covering of degree \(n\)) and also by \(W_k\) (a covering of degree \(m\)); \(W_\ell\) is then called a completion for the \(\mathrm{Iv}(g; h, m; k, n)\). In the paper we find several results on special cases of this problem. As examples of such results, recall that given an \(\mathrm{Iv}(g; h, m; k, n)\) the Castelnuovo-Severi inequality states that \(g \leq m h + n k + (m - 1)(n - 1)\); the following results appear in a section of the paper that deals with the case when equality holds. Theorem. Consider an \(\mathrm{Iv}(p q + 1 ; 1, p ; 1, q)\), where \(p\) and \(q\) are odd primes and the Iv admits a completion. Then \(W_{p q + 1}\) admits a complete, simple, half-canonical \(g^{p + q - 3}_{p q}\). \noindent{Theorem.} Given an \(\mathrm{Iv}(3 p + 1; 1, p; 1, 3)\), assume that \(W_{3 p + 1}\) admits a complete, simple, half-canonical \(g^{p}_{3 p }\). Then the Iv admits a completion. There are also sections dealing with the case where \(g = 10\) and the case where \(h = k = 0\).