Irregular canonical double surfaces

Abstract

We study minimal surfaces X of general type with $K^2_X=6p_g-14$ and $q(X)>0$ such that $K_X$ is ample, the image of the canonical map is a canonically embedded surface of general type and the canonical map is not birational. The main result states that if X satisfies the above assumptions and $q(X)\ge 2$, then, apart from a finite number of exceptions, X belongs to an infinite series of examples due to Beauville. The exceptions are described in detail and some new examples are given.