Abelian canonical covers of minimal rational surfaces and $\mathbb F_1$ up to degree $8$

Source abstract

We classify abelian canonical covers of degree at most $8$ of smooth surfaces of minimal degree, and of $\mathbb P^2$ and Hirzebruch surfaces not embedded as surfaces of minimal degree. Let $π: X \longrightarrow W$ be an abelian canonical cover of a smooth surface of minimal degree $W$ with group $G$ and degree $n$. Degrees $n \le 4$ were classified earlier; we complete the picture for $5 \le n \le 8$: - No such covers exist if $n$ is prime and $n > 3$, nor if $G=\mathbb Z_8$. - For $G=\mathbb Z_6$, $\mathbb Z_2 \times \mathbb Z_2 \times \mathbb Z_2$ and $\mathbb Z_2 \times \mathbb Z_4$ we give the complete list of covers. Only $W =\mathbb P^2$, $\mathbb F_0$ and $\mathbb F_1$ arise. The list contains several families with unbounded $p_g$, most of them new; $X$ is smooth for general covers with $G=\mathbb Z_2 \times \mathbb Z_2 \times \mathbb Z_2$, but singular if $G=\mathbb Z_6$ and, with one exception, if $G=\mathbb Z_2 \times \mathbb Z_4$. When $W$ is $\mathbb P^2$ or a Hirzebruch surface not embedded as a surface of minimal degree, we show that abelian canonical covers exist only for $n = 2$ or for $G =\mathbb Z_2 \times \mathbb Z_2$, and we classify the latter completely: they form infinitely many families, most new, with unbounded $p_g$ and, most of them, with unbounded irregularity. The slopes $K^2/χ$ of all these $X$ accumulate at $6$, at 8, and at $8α/(α+1)$ for every integer $α\ge 2$. These results rest on more general ones, valid for $X$ normal, locally Gorenstein and of arbitrary dimension, and $W$ smooth with $p_g(W) = 0$: we determine which branch divisors of an abelian canonical cover must vanish, and, for canonical covers whose $π_*\mathcal O_X$ splits as a sum of line bundles, we describe the $\mathcal O_W$-module structure of $π_*\mathcal O_X$, computing it completely when $W$ is $\mathbb P^2$ or a Hirzebruch surface.