Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Let L be a line bundle on a connected, smooth, algebraic, projective surface X. In this paper we have studied the following questions:
1) Under which conditions is L spanned by global sections? I.e., if ɸL : X →PN denotes the map associated to the space Г(L) of the sections of L, when is ɸL a morphism?
2) Under which conditions is L very ample? I.e., when does ɸL give an embedding?
These problems arise naturally in the study, and in particular in the classification, of algebraic surfaces (see [8], [3], [5]).