Brill-Noether varieties of k-gonal curves

Abstract

We consider a general curve of fixed gonality k and genus g. We propose an estimate for the dimension of the variety $W^r_d(C)$ of special linear series on C, by solving an analogous problem in tropical geometry. Using work of Coppens and Martens, we prove that this estimate is exactly correct if k is at least g/5 + 2, and is an upper bound in all other cases. We also completely characterize the cases in which $W^r_d(C)$ has the same dimension as for a general curve of genus g.