On the projective normality of double coverings over a rational surface

Abstract

We study the projective normality of a minimal surface $X$ which is a ramified double covering over a rational surface $S$ with $\dim |-K_S|\ge 1$. In particular Horikawa surfaces, the minimal surfaces of general type with $K_X^2=2p_g(X)-4$, are of this type, up to resolution of singularities. Let $\pi$ be the covering map from $X$ to $S$. We show that the ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$-invariant adjoint divisors $K_X+r{\pi }^{\ast }A$ are normally generated, where the integer $r\ge 3$ and $A$ is an ample divisor on $S$.

arXiv commentA proposition in Section 3 is corrected. Part of Section 5 is rewritten