On birational transformations of pairs in the complex plane (Q1018059)

The authors consider pairs \((S,C)\) where \(S\) is a rational surface and \(C\subset S\) is an irreducible curve. They say that a birational map \(\varphi:S\dashrightarrow S^{\prime}\) is a birational transformation of pairs \(\varphi:(S,C)\dashrightarrow (S^{\prime},C^{\prime})\) if it restricts to a birational transformation \(\varphi|_{C}:C\dashrightarrow C^{\prime}\). The group of birational transformations of a pair \((S,C)\) is denoted by \(\text{Dec}(S,C)\) and induces the so-called canonical complex \[ 1\rightarrow \text{Ine}(S,C)\rightarrow \text{Dec}(S,C) @>\rho>> \text{Bir}(C)\rightarrow 1 \] where \(\rho\) is the action of \(\text{Dec}(S,C)\) on \(C\) and \(\text{Ine}(S,C)\) is the inertia group of \(C\) in \(\text{Bir}(S)\) which is the group of birational transformations that fix \(C\). In the paper under review it is given a survey about the pairs \((\mathbb P ^2,C)\) whose decomposition group \(\text{Dec}(\mathbb P ^2,C)\) is not trivial, together with a description of their corresponding canonical complexes. The cases of curves of genus \(\geq 2\), 1 and 0 are considered separately. Moreover, it is expressed the link between the transformations that preserve or fix curves with respectively the classification of finite subgroups and the dynamics of the elements of \(\text{Bir}(\mathbb P ^2)\).