Genus-two quartic from a degree-four complete linear system

ID: genus-two-quartic-from-a-degree-four-complete-linear-system

On a smooth projective curve of genus two, has three sections and no base points by the Riemann-Roch theorem. Its map to is nondegenerate and has mapping degree times image degree four. The only nonbirational possibility is a double cover of a conic. Every degree-two divisor with two sections is canonical, again by Riemann-Roch theorem, so that possibility forces , or . If this equivalence fails, the image is a quartic and the map is birational. The quartic is singular because a smooth plane quartic has genus three.

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