Real line arrangements with the Hirzebruch property (Q1637307): Difference between revisions

In the paper under review, the author studies one of Hirzebruch's problems related to two dimensional complex ball-quotients, i.e, smooth complex projective surfaces such that the universal cover is the complex unit ball \(| z_1|^2+| z_2|^2<1\). We say that an arrangement of lines in the complex projective plane satisfies Hirzebruch's property if it contains \(3n\) lines and each line intersects others in exactly \(n+1\) points. \textit{F. Hirzebruch} [Russ. Math. Surv. 40, No. 4, 135--145 (1985; Zbl 0593.14023); translation from Usp. Mat. Nauk 40, No. 4(244), 121--130 (1985)] asked whether all arrangements satisfying Hirzebruch's property come from finite complex reflection groups. The main result of the paper answers this question in the affirmative under the assumption that the considered line arrangements are defined over the real numbers. Main Theorem. There exist exactly four line arrangements in the real projective plane consisting of \(3n\) lines such that each line intersects others in \(n+1\) points. These arrangements are reflection arrangements of the Coxeter groups corresponding to spherical triangles with angles \((\pi/2,\pi/2,\pi/2)\), \((\pi/2,\pi/3,\pi/3)\), \((\pi/2,\pi/3,\pi/4)\), and \((\pi/2,\pi/3,\pi/5)\). The way to prove this result, presented by the author, is really interesting. It boils down to the existence of a special polyhedral metric with conical singularities on the real projective plane for which the lines of the arrangement are geodesics.