Families of canonically polarized varieties over surfaces (Q926271)

Let \(S^0\) be a smooth quasi-projective variety with a smooth projective compactification \(S\) such that \(D=S-S^0\) is a divisor with simple normal crossings. Then the logarithmic Kodaira dimension \(\kappa (S^0)\) of \(S^0\) is the given by the Kodaira Iitaka dimension of \(K_S+D\) i.e. \(\kappa (S^0)=\text{ tr.dgr.}_{\mathbb C}(\bigoplus_{m\geq 0} H^0(m(K_S+D)))-1\). One says that \(S^0\) is of log general type if \(\kappa (S^0)=\dim S^0\). A conjecture of Viehweg states the following: Let \(f^0:X^0\to S^0\) be a smooth family of canonically polarized varieties. If \(f^0\) is of maximal variation (i.e. if the rank of the Kodaira-Spencer map at the general point of \(S^0\) is maximal), then \(S^0\) is of log general type. In the case \(\dim S^0=1\), the above conjecture reduces to a famous conjecture of Shafarevich later proved by Parshin and Arakelov. In the paper under review, the authors show that the above conjecture holds when \(\dim S^0=2\). More precisely, assuming that \(\dim S^0=2\), they show that if \(\kappa (S^0)=-\infty\), then the variation of \(f^0\) is at most \(1\) and if \(\kappa (S^0)\geq 0\), then the variation of \(f^0\) is at most \(\kappa (S^0)\).