The number of singular fibers in hyperelliptic Lefschetz fibrations
The paper under review concerns the study of the lower bounds for the minimal number of singular fibres of genus-\(g\) Lefschetz fibrations over the two-sphere. Let \(M_g\) be the minimal number of singular fibres in all genus-\(g\) hyperelliptic Lefschetz fibrations over the two-sphere, with total space a complex surface (considered as a four-dimensional manifold) and let \(N_g\) be the minimal number of singular fibres in all genus-\(g\) hyperelliptic Lefschetz fibrations over the two-sphere. The author estimates \(N_g\) for \(4\leq g \leq 10\). A more exhaustive estimate is given for \(M_g\), proving the following: for \(g\) even, if \(g\geq 4\) then \(M_g=2g+4\); for \(g\) odd, if \(g\geq 7\) then \(M_g\geq 2g+6\).
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