Rational curves and ruled orders on surfaces

Abstract: We study ruled orders. These arise naturally in the Mori program for orders on projective surfaces and morally speaking are orders on a ruled surface ramified on a bisection and possibly some fibres. We describe fibres of a ruled order and show they are in some sense rational. We also determine the Hilbert scheme of rational curves and hence the corresponding non-commutative Mori contraction. This gives strong evidence that ruled orders are examples of the non-commutative ruled surfaces introduced by Van den Bergh.