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Work over $\mathbb{C}$, and let $C$ be a smooth projective curve of genus $g\ge 3$ and gonality three. A trigonal curve has a basepoint-free degree-three pencil, giving a finite morphism $f:C\to {\mathbb{P}}^1$ of degree three. It is not hyperelliptic, so its canonical map is an embedding. Let $D_t=f^{-1}(t)$, including its scheme multiplicities. The complete pencil has $h^0(D_t)=2$, and Riemann-Roch theorem givesThus the quotient of canonical sections evaluated on $D_t$ has dimension two, and $D_t$ spans a line in ${\mathbb{P}}^{g-1}$. This argument includes ramified fibres, rather than treating only three distinct points.

These two-dimensional quotients vary in a globally generated rank-two bundle $E$ on ${\mathbb{P}}^1$. More explicitly, the image ofhas constant rank two by the preceding dimension count, so it is a subbundle. The equality of the rank at every fibre justifies the bundle construction. On global sections it contains every canonical section, and therefore $H^0({\mathbb{P}}^1,E)=H^0(C,K_C)$. The Birkhoff–Grothendieck theorem givesGlobal generation forces nonnegative splitting degrees. Since $h^0(E)=a_1+a_2+2=g$,The natural map from $f^{\ast }E$ to $K_C$ is a surjection at every point, since the canonical system has no base points. By projectivization by quotients it gives a map $C\to F=\mathbb{P}(E)$ over ${\mathbb{P}}^1$, with $M{|}_C=K_C$. Its composition with the tautological map of $F$ is the canonical embedding of $C$, so $C\to F$ is itself a closed embedding. Each fibre of the ruling maps to the spanning line of $D_t$; their union is the canonical scroll of a trigonal curve, and the ruling restricts to the given $g_3^1$.

Put $a=a_2-a_1$. Tensoring $E$ by $\mathcal{O}(-a_2)$ identifies the abstract ruled surface with ${\mathbb{F}}_a=\mathbb{P}(\mathcal{O}(-a)\oplus \mathcal{O})$. The section coming from the quotient onto the smaller summand has self-intersection $-a$ and will be denoted by $B$. In this normalized presentation its tautological class is $B$; restoring the twist givesThis class gives the scroll map. It is an embedding if $a_1>0$. When $a_1=0$, it contracts $B$; thus the printed embedding description needs this positivity qualification. For example, in genus three the ruled model is ${\mathbb{F}}_1$ and its image is ${\mathbb{P}}^2$; in genus four the type $(0,2)$ has a quadric-cone image. In both cases the smooth curve and its canonical image are still described by the construction above.

As a divisor on $F$, the curve meets each fibre in degree three, so $C=3M+tL$ for an integer $t$. The scroll formula givesBy adjunction formula and $M{|}_C=K_C$,Taking degree on $C$ uses $\mathrm{deg}(L{|}_C)=3$ and gives $t=4-g$. ConsequentlyWriting $d=a+a_2+2$, this is

A divisor $rB+dL$ with $r\ge 0$ on ${\mathbb{F}}_a$ is basepoint-free when $d\ge ra$. Indeed, its pushforward along the ruling splits intoif each degree is nonnegative, sections generate these coefficient functions, and the fibre monomials generate at every point. In particular $3B+dL$ is basepoint-free when $d\ge 3a$. The Bertini smoothness theorem then makes its general member nonsingular, including the equality case, where the general member avoids $B$.

Conversely, if $d<3a$, then $(3B+dL)\cdot B=d-3a<0$, so every effective member contains $B$. Because the canonical scroll has $a_1\ge 0$,The residual system $|2B+dL|$ is basepoint-free. Its general member $R$ does not contain $B$ and intersects it inThus a general divisor in the original system is $B+R$ with intersecting components and is singular at an intersection point. The fixed component occurs exactly once for a general member, since $R$ is not forced to contain it. This proves both directions, with the canonical-scroll hypotheses retained:This is also the bound on the Maroni invariant. Merely observing a fixed component would not by itself prove singularity; the positive intersection with its residual divisor is essential.

Take $D$ nef and big on a complex K3 surface, and put $g=1+D^2/2$. The K3 linear system dichotomies are successive alternatives, so each later statement assumes that the exceptional cases in the earlier ones have been excluded.

The first dichotomy separates basepoint-free systems from monogonal linear systems on a K3 surface. In the exceptional case,Otherwise $|D|$ is basepoint-free. There are no isolated base points left after excluding the fixed-section case; this is the first dichotomy.

For a basepoint-free system, the second dichotomy separates hyperelliptic linear systems on a K3 surface from birational maps to normal images. The degree-two cases are characterized byTheir images are surfaces of minimal degree: the plane, a rational normal scroll, or the Veronese surface. In the birational case, the map is an embedding away from the $(-2)$-curves $\Gamma$ with $D\Gamma =0$, which it contracts to Du Val singularities. Thus “birational” does not assert an embedding of the original surface. These are the degree-two and birational projective-model alternatives.

In the third dichotomy, the birational image is either defined scheme-theoretically by quadrics or has an exceptional cubic requirement. The exceptional threefold containing it is ${\mathbb{P}}^3$ for $g=3$, a quadric hypersurface in ${\mathbb{P}}^4$ for $g=4$, a rational normal threefold scroll in the higher-genus trigonal case, or the cone over the Veronese surface in the plane-quintic case. For $g\ge 5$, trigonal sections come from an elliptic pencil with $DE=3$; the plane-quintic exception hasAll other birational cases have homogeneous ideal generated by quadrics. For $g\ge 4$, the exceptional ideals are generated by quadrics and cubics. For $g=3$, the image is a quartic hypersurface in ${\mathbb{P}}^3$ and its ideal needs its degree-four defining equation; that case must not be included in the cubic-generation assertion. The geometric alternatives, including the low-genus exceptions, are the plane-quintic exception to the third dichotomy; the higher-genus trigonal conclusion is also stated in the projective-model theorem.

The point of the final exception is that a plane quintic is not a trigonal curve. Its canonical model is the degree-two Veronese embedding of the plane curve, and its quadrics retain an ambient Veronese surface. Accordingly, one must include the cone-over-Veronese case instead of calling every failure of quadratic generation “trigonal.”

For a basepoint-free nonhyperelliptic nef big divisor $D$, the trigonal condition means that its general smooth curve is a trigonal curve. An elliptic pencil on a K3 surface with $D\cdot E=3$ restricts to its degree-three pencil. On a smooth quartic containing a line $\Gamma$, the hyperplane class $H$ has this property for $E=H-\Gamma$.