Jets of line bundles on curves and Wronskians

We collect a few results about jets of line bundles on curves and Wronskians, with a special emphasis to those arising from the canonical involution of a hyperelliptic curve.     

Convex hulls of curves of genus one

Let C be a real nonsingular affine curve of genus one, embedded in affine n-space, whose set of real points is compact. For any polynomial f which is nonnegative on C(R), we prove that there exist polynomials fi with (mod IC) and such that the degrees deg(fi) are bounded in terms of deg(f) only. Using Lasserre?s relaxation method, we deduce an explicit representation of the convex hull of C(R) in Rn by a lifted linear matrix inequality. This is the first instance in the literature where such a representation is given for the convex hull of a nonrational variety. The same works for convex hulls of (singular) curves whose normalization is C. We then make a detailed study of the associated degree bounds. These bounds are directly related to size and dimension of the projected matrix pencils. In particular, we prove that these bounds tend to infinity when the curve C degenerates suitably into a singular curve, and we provide explicit lower bounds as well.     

Fibrations by nonsmooth genus three curves in characteristic three

Bertini’s theorem on variable singular points may fail in positive characteristic, as was discovered by Zariski in 1944. In fact, he found fibrations by nonsmooth curves. In this work we continue to classify this phenomenon in characteristic three by constructing a two-dimensional algebraic fibration by nonsmooth plane projective quartic curves, that is universal in the sense that the data about some fibrations by nonsmooth plane projective quartics are condensed in it. Our approach has been motivated by the close relation between it and the theory of regular but nonsmooth curves, or equivalently, nonconservative function fields in one variable. Actually, it also provides an understanding of the interesting effect of the relative Frobenius morphism in fibrations by nonsmooth curves. In analogy to the Kodaira-Néron classification of special fibers of minimal fibrations by elliptic curves, we also construct the minimal proper regular model of some fibrations by nonsmooth projective plane quartic curves, determine the structure of the bad fibers, and study the global geometry of the total spaces.     

Self-linked curves and normal bundle

We give necessary conditions on the degree and the genus of a smooth, integral curve C⊂P³$C\subset {\mathbb{P}}^3$ to be self-linked (i.e. locus of simple contact of two surfaces). We also give similar results for set theoretically complete intersection curves with a structure of multiplicity three (i.e. locus of 2-contact of two surfaces).     

Normally generated line bundles on general curves, II

Let C be a general curve of genus g≥3. Here we prove that there is a normally generated L∈Pic^d(C) such that h⁰(C,L)=r+1≥4 (i.e. a very ample line bundle which embeds C in P^r as a projectively normal curve) if and only if (r+1)h¹≤g≤r(r−1)/2+2h¹, where h¹?g+r−d=h¹(C,L).     

Finding rational points on bielliptic genus 2 curves

We discuss a technique for trying to find all rational points on curves of the form Y ²=f ₃ X ⁶+f ₂ X ⁴+f ₁ X ²+f ₀, where the sextic has nonzero discriminant. This is a bielliptic curve of genus 2. When the rank of the Jacobian is 0 or 1, Chabauty's Theorem may be applied. However, we shall concentrate on the situation when the rank is at least 2. In this case, we shall derive an associated family of elliptic curves, defined over a number field ℚα. If each of these elliptic curves has rank less than the degree of ℚα : ℚ, then we shall describe a Chabauty-like technique which may be applied to try to find all the points (x,y) defined over ℚα) on the elliptic curves, for which x∈ℚ. This in turn allows us to find all ℚ-rational points on the original genus 2 curve. We apply this to give a solution to a problem of Diophantus (where the sextic in X is irreducible over ℚ), which simplifies the recent solution of Wetherell. We also present two examples where the sextic in X is reducible over ℚ. Received: 27 November 1998 / Revised version: 4 June 1999     

Dyson's theorem for curves

Let K be a number field and X₁ and X₂ two smooth projective curves defined over it. In this paper we prove an analogue of the Dyson theorem for the product X₁×X₂. If Xi=P₁ we find the classical Dyson theorem. In general, it will imply a self contained and easy proof of Siegel theorem on integral points on hyperbolic curves and it will give some insight on effectiveness. This proof is new and avoids the use of Roth and Mordell-Weil theorems, the theory of Linear Forms in Logarithms and the Schmidt subspace theorem.     

On double coverings of hyperelliptic curves

We prove various properties of varieties of special linear systems on double coverings of hyperelliptic curves. We show and determine the irreducibility, generically reducedness and singular loci of the variety for bi-elliptic curves and double coverings of genus two curves. Similar results for double coverings of hyperelliptic curves of genus h≥3 are also presented.     

On projectively normal embeddings of generalk-gonal curves

Fix integersg, k andt witht>0,k≥3 andtk<g/2−1. LetX be a generalk-gonal curve of genusg andR∈Pic ^k (X) the uniqueg _k ¹ onX. SetL:=K _X⊗(R ^*)^⊗t.L is very ample. Leth _L:X→P(H ⁰(X, L)^*) be the associated embedding. Here we prove thath _L(X) is projectively normal. Ifk≥4 andtk<g/2−2 the curveh _L(X) is scheme-theoretically cut out by quadrics. The author was partially supported by MURST and GNSAGA of CNR (Italy).     

On certain remarkable curves of genus five

The aim of this note is twofold. First to show the existence of genus five curves having exactly twenty four Weierstrass points, which constitute the set of fixed points of three distinct elliptic involutions on them. Second to characterize these curves, in fact we prove that all such curves are bielliptic double cover of Fermat's quartic.     

Topology of the compactified Jacobians of singular curves

We compute the Euler number of the compactified Jacobian of a curve whose minimal unibranched normalization has only plane irreducible singularities with characteristic Puiseux exponents (p, q), (4, 2q, s), (6, 8, s), or (6, 10, s). Further, we derive a combinatorial method to compute the Betti numbers of the compactified Jacobian of an unibranched rational curve with singularities like above. Some of the Betti numbers can be stated explicitly.     

Some general results on plane curves with total inflection points

In this paper we study plane curves of degree d with e total inflection points, for nonzero natural numbers d and e. Marc Coppens: the author is affiliated with K. U. Leuven as Research Fellow Received: 25 October 2006     

Imaginary automorphisms on real hyperelliptic curves

A real hyperelliptic curve X is said to be Gaussian if there is an automorphism such that , where [-1] denotes the hyperelliptic involution on X. Gaussian curves arise naturally in several contexts, for example when one studies real Jacobians. In the present paper, we study the properties of Gaussian curves and we describe their moduli spaces.     

Explicit Mumford isomorphism for hyperelliptic curves

Using an explicit version of the Mumford isomorphism on the moduli space of hyperelliptic curves we derive a closed formula for the Arakelov-Green function of a hyperelliptic Riemann surface evaluated at its Weierstrass points.     

Explicit complete curves in the moduli space of curves of genus three

We explicitly describe complete, one-dimensional subvarieties of the moduli space of smooth complex curves of genus 3.Supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (N.W.O.).