Irreducible plane sextics with large fundamental groups (Q1046438)

Irreducible sextics of torus type, their moduli and fundamental groups have been a subject of intensive study, see e.g. papers by the author as [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 78, No. 2, 329--351 (2008; Zbl 1158.14026)] and [J. Knot Theory Ramifications 18, No. 8, 1065--1080 (2009; Zbl 1174.14027)] or, for further references, \textit{C. Eyral} and \textit{M. Oka} [Topology Appl. 153, No. 11, 1705--1721 (2006; Zbl 1096.14021)]. The weight \(w(P)\) of a simple singular point \(P\) is defined as follows: \(w({\mathbf{A}_{3k-1}})=k, k\in \mathbb{Z}, w({\mathbf{E}_{6}})=2\) and \( w(P)=0\) for all other types. The weight \(w(B)\) of a sextic \(B\) with simple singularities is the total weight of its singular points. In this paper, the author computes the fundamental group of the complement of each irreducible sextic of weight eight or nine. The starting point of this computation is an explicit geometric construction of the curves in question together with their torus structures and the study of their moduli space. As an application, the author shows that the Alexander modules of all sextics of weight eight and nine are free modules over an appropriate ring. As another application he can compute the fundamental groups of a number of other sextics.