The bicanonical map of surfaces with $p_g=0$ and $K^2\ge 7$

Abstract

A minimal surface of general type with $p_g(S)=0$ satisfies $1\le K^2\le 9$ and it is known that the image of the bicanonical map $\fie$ is a surface for $K_S^2\ge 2$, whilst for $K_S^2\ge 5$, the bicanonical map is always a morphism. In this paper it is shown that $\fie$ is birational if $K_S^2=9$ and that the degree of $\fie$ is at most 2 if $K_S^2=7$ or $K_S^2=8$. By presenting two examples of surfaces $S$ with $K_S^2=7$ and 8 and bicanonical map of degree 2, it is also shown that this result is sharp. The example with $K_S^2=8$ is, to our knowledge, a new example of a surface of general type with $p_g=0$.

LaTeX 2e, 15 pages, to appear. Minor typos, change of title (title of the previous version: "A note on surfaces of general type with $p_g=0$ and $K^2\ge 7$") and added one example of a surface, showing that the main result is sharp