On surfaces of general type with q=5

We prove that a complex surface S with irregularity q(S)=5 that has no irrational pencil of genus >1 has geometric genus p_g(S)>7. As a consequence, one is able to classify minimal surfaces S of general type with q(S)=5 and p_g(S)<8. This result is a negative answer, for q=5, to the question asked in arXiv:0811.0390 of the existence of surfaces of general type with irregularity q>3 that have no irrational pencil of genus >1 and with the lowest possible geometric genus p_g=2q-3. This gives some evidence for the conjecture that the only irregular surface with no irrational pencil of genus >1 and p_g=2q-3 is the symmetric product of a genus three curve. The research that lead to the present paper was partially supported by a grant of the group GNSAGA of INdAM