This note answers some questions on holomorphic curves and their distribution in an algebraic surface of positive index. More specifically, we exploit the existence of natural negatively curved "pseudo-Finsler" metrics on a surface S of general type whose Chern numbers satisfy cl > 2c2 to show that a holomorphic map of a Riemann surface to S whose image is not in any rational or elliptic curve must satisfy a distance decreasing property with respect to these metrics. We show as a consequence that such a map extends over isolated punctures. So assuming that the Riemann surface is obtained from a compact one of genus q by removing a rinite number of points, then the map is actually algebraic and defines a compact holomorphic curve in S. Furthermore, the degree of the curve with respect to a fixed polarization is shown to be bounded above by a multiple of q -1 irrespective of the map. Bogomolov (4) played an important role in their analysis. Those ideas were later refined by Miyaoka (5) and led to a stronger result on surfaces of positive index, claiming that their cotangent bundles are "almost" ample [cf. also Schneider and Tancredi (6)]. In this note, we also use the same ideas to demonstrate that if the minimal model of a two-dimensional projective variety S is of positive index,t then S is C-hyperbolict and in fact strongly C-hyperbolic. In a future paper, we shall weaken the hypothesis of positive index and study the case when S is quasiprojective.
Section 2. Some PreliminariesThis section will serve mainly to establish the notation to be used. Unless otherwise specified, objects such as maps, bundles, and their sections are assumed to be holomorphic. No Riemann surface with (Gaussian) curvature K = -Cl(g)g-.We will need to consider a slight generalization of a metric on a line bundle: g will be allowed to degenerate, but locally it will differ from a metric only by a factor of IhlI, where h # 0 is a holomorphic function and v > 0. This means that g is degenerate only along proper subvarieties and that cl(g) defines a current which is smooth aside from delta functions supported along these subvarieties. In this case, g will be called a pseudometric. Note the identity c1(frlg) = fwcl(g).We now make some observations about metrics on D and D*. The Poincar6 (punctured) disk of radius c is defined to be tImplicit is that the minimal model of S is unique. So S cannot be CP2 and, by Kodaira classification of surfaces with positive index, must in fact be of general type. tIn principle we can find the corresponding algebraic subvariety explicitly.
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