Homology planes and algebraic curves (Q1327629)

This paper investigates a construction which yields all rational homology planes (i.e. incomplete quasi-projective surfaces over \(\mathbb{C}\) with trivial rational homology) of general type (i.e. Kodaira dimension 2). The construction starts with a curve in a rational surface (typically \(\mathbb{P}^ 2\)) and a minimal embedded resolution, then employs a judiciously chosen sequence of blow-ups at the singular points; then the desired surface is the complement of an appropriate union of curves obtained during the construction. The precise formulation of the conditions on all these choices occupies the first section of the paper. The second one proves that all the surfaces in question may be obtained in this way (though by no means uniquely so). The third section obtains the condition for vanishing integral homology: the unimodularity of a certain matrix, whose entries depend linearly on the parameters in the above choices. These are considered more fully in the fourth section: the sequence of the blow-ups at a singular point has numerical properties conveniently described by continued fractions; from these the authors obtain an algorithm for calculating the determinant just mentioned. This paper provides the detailed proofs for the construction of examples previously announced by the authors: an infinite number of contractible homology planes of general type, and nontrivial homology planes with nontrivial automorphisms of finite order.