Fundamental groups of symmetric sextics (Q1029301)

The author studies a class of plane sextics that appeared in his paper [Geom. Dedicata 137, 199--218 (2008; Zbl 1158.14028)]: those with at least two type \({\mathbf E}_6\) singular points. The approach is to reduce these curves to trigonal ones with the set of singularities \({\mathbf E}_6 \oplus {\mathbf S}_2\). As a consequence, the author can give explicit equations of the sextics and rational parametrizations of the moduli spaces; moreover, by applying the classical Zariski-van Kampen theorem to trigonal models, he obtains presentations of the fundamental groups; in particular he shows that all groups can be generated by loops in a small neighborhood of any type \({\mathbf E}_6\) singular point of the curve. As an application, he uses the presentations obtained and the results of his paper [Irreducible plane sextics with large fundamental group, \url{arXiv:0712.2290}] to compute the fundamental group of 8 sextics of torus type and 117 new sextics with abelian fundamental group.