Complete intersection surfaces with trivial Makar-Limanov invariant (Q420706)

Every normal rational surface \(U\) admitting an \(\mathbb{A}^{1}\)-fibration \(\rho:U\rightarrow C\) over a smooth curve can be realized as an open subset of a normal projective surface \(X\) with SNC boundary divisor \(B=X\setminus U\) in such a way that the \(\mathbb{A}^{1}\)-fibration comes as the restriction of a \(\mathbb{P}^{1}\)-fibration \(\overline{\rho}:X\rightarrow\overline{C}\) over the smooth projective model \(\overline{C}\simeq\mathbb{P}^{1}\) of \(C\). A minimal desingularization \(\sigma:\tilde{X}\rightarrow X\) of \(X\) then dominates a ruled surface \(Y\rightarrow\overline{C}\) via a sequence of blow-ups \(\tau:\tilde{X}\rightarrow Y\). In the article under review, the authors consider the case where \(U\) is connected at infinity and \(C\) is a smooth affine curve. In this case, it is possible to chose the projective model \(X\) in such a way that the corresponding ruled surface \(Y\) is isomorphic to \(\mathbb{P}^{1}\times\mathbb{P}^{1}\), the ruling being given by one of the two projections. The authors develop an algebro-combinatorial framework to encode the sequence of points, including infinitely near ones, blown-up by \(\tau:X\rightarrow Y=\mathbb{P}^{1}\times\mathbb{P}^{1}\), the curves contracted by the minimal resolution \(\sigma:\tilde{X}\rightarrow X\) and the connected boundary divisor \(B\) to be removed to obtain a rational \(\mathbb{A}^{1}\)-fibered surface \(\rho:U\rightarrow C\) of the desired type. As an application, they obtain a characterization of normal affine surfaces with trivial canonical class and trivial Makar-Limanov invariant which generalizes a result due to [\textit{T. Bandman} and \textit{L. Makar-Limanov}, Mich. Math. J. 49, No. 3, 567--582 (2001; Zbl 1079.14539)] in the smooth case.