Skip to main content
3 of 4
added 569 characters in body
aglearner
  • 14.3k
  • 8
  • 41
  • 99

Complex curves covered by smooth plane curves

Question: Is it true that for every smooth compact complex curve $C$ there exists a smooth curve $C'$ in $\mathbb CP^2$ that admits a non-trivial morphism (i.e. holomorphic map) $C'\to C$?

Motivation. Unfortunately, I don't know yet any application for a positive answer to this question. But a negative answer to this question would solve in negative a great question of Francesco Polizzi: Surfaces in $\mathbb{P}^3$ with isolated singularities

Indeed, here is a simple exercise:

Exercise. Suppose that $C$ is a smooth curve that is not covered by any smooth plane curve. Then the surface $C\times \mathbb CP^1$ is not birational to any surface in $\mathbb CP^3$ with isolated singularities.

aglearner
  • 14.3k
  • 8
  • 41
  • 99