Lens space surgeries as A'Campo's divide knots (Q1007217)

A lens space surgery is a Dehn surgery on a knot in the 3-sphere resulting in a lens space. J. Berge, in an unpublished manuscript from 1990, gave a list of twelve infinite families of such surgeries and it has been conjectured that the list is complete [cf. \textit{C. McA. Gordon}, Proc. Int. Congr. Math., Kyoto/Japan 1990, Vol. I, 631--642 (1991; Zbl 0743.57008)]. Using singularity theory, \textit{N. A'Campo} constructed [Proc. int. Congr. Math., Vancouver 1974, Vol. 1, 395-404 (1975; Zbl 0352.14011); Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 88, 151--169 (1998; Zbl 0960.57007); ibid., 171--180 (1998; Zbl 0960.57008); Ann. Fac. Sci. Toulouse, VI. Sér., Math. 8, No.1, 5-23 (1999); erratum ibid. 8, No.~2, 343 (1999; Zbl 0962.32025)] certain divide knots associated to immersed plane curves. The present paper shows that the knots in four of Berge's major families are divide knots by constructing the associated plane curve. The area of the curve (appropriately defined) is related to the surgery coefficient.