Configurations of seven lines on the real projective plane and the root system of type \(E_7\) (Q1964226)

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Configurations of seven lines on the real projective plane and the root system of type \(E_7\)
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    Configurations of seven lines on the real projective plane and the root system of type \(E_7\) (English)
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    12 November 2000
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    The configuration of seven lines on the projective plane are closely related with the classical topic on the twenty-eight bitangents of plane quartic curves. As it is well-known, the Weyl group of type \(E_7\) is regarded as the group of incidence-preserving automorphism of the twenty-eight bitangents. The author studies the case where the seven lines are defined over the real number field. Let \(l_1,l_2,\dots,l_7\) be mutually different seven lines on \(\mathbb P^2(\mathbb R).\) Cummings and White showed that there are eleven non-equivalent classes of systems of seven lines with condition: No three of \(l_1,l_2,\dots,l_7\) intersect at a point. The purpose of this paper is to give an interpretation of the classification of Cummings and White in terms of the root system of type \(E_7.\) To accomplish this, the following condition on these lines is added: There is no conic tangent to any six of \(l_1,l_2,\dots,l_7.\) Moreover, the notion of tetrahedral sets is necessary which consists of ten roots modulo signs in the root system of type \(E_7\) and which plays an important role in the study.
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    arrangements of lines
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    configuration space
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    real projective plane
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    root system of type \(E_7\)
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    pent-diagrams
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    tetradiagrams
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    twenty-eight bitangents of plane quartic curves
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    tetrahedral sets
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    Shrikhande graphs
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