Enumerative geometry of singular plane curves (Q914782)

To determine the degree, for example, of the space of plane curves of degree \(d\) and \(\delta\) ordinary nodes, the author generalizes the method of his previous paper [Ann. Math., II. Ser. 130, 121-157 (1989; Zbl 0704.14018)], where he showed that the space of such curves is irreducible by degenerating a blow-up of the ambient \({\mathbb{P}}^ 2\) to a union of ruled surfaces. The point of the degeneration, here as in the previous paper, is to reduce to curves of lower degree, while keeping the singularities manageable. Here, the new feature is to keep careful track of certain limit multiplicities, which is accomplished via local deformation theory.