Double covers of Kummer surfaces (Q885877)

Given a \(K3\) surface \(X\), the period lattice \(T_X\) of \(X\) is defined as the orthogonal in \(H^2(X,{\mathbb{Z}})\) of the Néron--Severi group of \(X\). A Shioda--Inose structure on a complex \(K3\) surface \(X\) is a degree 2 rational map \(X\to Y\), where \(Y\) is a \(K3\) surface, which induces a Hodge isometry \(T_X(2)\to Y\). \textit{D. R. Morrison} [Invent. Math. 75, 105--121 (1984; Zbl 0509.14034)] characterized the existence of a Shioda--Inose structure in terms of properties of the period lattice of \(T_X\). Here the author considers the more general situation of a \(K3\) surface with a degree 2 rational map to a Kummer surface \(Y\). She gives a necessary and sufficient condition on \(T_X\) for the existence of such a map, thus generalizing the above result by Morrison. Using this criterion, she is able to: 1) prove that for any given Kummer surface \(Y\) there are finitely many \(K3\) surfaces \(X\) admitting a rational degree 2 map \(X\to Y\); 2) assuming that \(Y\) is a general Kummer surface, to list the (period lattices of) all the \(K3\) surfaces \(X\) as in 1). The second part of the papers is devoted to giving a geometrical construction of the \(K3\) surfaces \(X\) as in 2) with the additional property that \(T_X\) is 2-elementary.