Étale endomorphisms of smooth affine surfaces. (Q1974160)

The author investigates the generalized Jacobian conjecture, i.e. whether an étale endomorphism \(\varphi\) of an algebraic variety \(X\) defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero is an automorphism. This generalized problem was first posted by \textit{M. Miyanishi} [Osaka J. Math. 22, No. 2, 345--364 (1985; Zbl 0614.14006)] who gave counterexamples and positive answers for certain varieties. Notably, these results seemed to underline the special role of \(\mathbb{C}^n\). In the paper under review, the author treats the case of complements of affine plane curves \(X={\mathbb{A}}^2\setminus C\) and shows that the generalized Jacobian conjecture is true except for \(C=\{y^m-x^n =0\}\) with \(\gcd(m,n)=1\). In an appendix (written together with M. Miyanishi) it is proved that for such curves there exist étale endomorphisms of arbirarily large degree.