The scrollar invariants of k-gonal curves having a nodal model on a smooth quadric having its nodes on few lines

Abstract

We determine the scrollar invariants of the normalization $C$ of a nodal curve $\Gamma$ of type $(k,a)$ on a smooth quadric $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1$ associated to the $g^1_k$ defined by the pencil of lines of type $(0,1)$ in case all nodes are contained in at most $k-1$ lines of type $(1,0)$. This result is very much related to results obtained by E. Ballico, but in this paper the proof follows directly from an easy lemma. Also a result of E. Ballico on the existence of curves with prescribed scrollar invariant is a consequence of that lemma making the arguments much shorter.