On deformation types of real elliptic surfaces

Abstract

We study real elliptic surfaces and trigonal curves (over a base of an arbitrary genus) and their equivariant deformations. We calculate the real Tate-Shafarevich group and reduce the deformation classification to the combinatorics of a real version of Grothendieck's {\it dessins d'enfants}. As a consequence, we obtain an explicit description of the deformation classes of $M$- and $(M-1)$- (i.e., maximal and submaximal in the sense of the Smith inequality) curves and surfaces.