Bounding cohomology on a smooth projective surface with Picard number 2

Abstract

The following conjecture arose out of discussions between B. Harbourne, J. Ro\'e, C. Cilberto and R. Miranda: for a smooth projective surface $X$ there exists a positive constant $c_X$ such that $h^1(\mathcal O_X(C))\le c_X h^0(\mathcal O_X(C))$ for every prime divisor $C$ on $X$. When the Picard number $\rho(X)=2$, we prove that if either the Kodaira dimension $\kappa(X)=1$ and $X$ has a negative curve or $X$ has two negative curves, then this conjecture holds for $X$.