Cayley-Bacharach and singularities of foliations (Q2042222)

A degree \(r\) foliation \(\mathcal {F}\) by curves on the complex curves is (up to a nonzero-constant) a non-zero section \(s\) of \(H^0(\Theta_{\mathbb {P}^2}(r-1)) \cong H^0(\Omega ^1_{\mathbb{P}^2}(r+2))\) not vanishing on a divisor. Thus \(\mathrm{coker}(s)\cong \mathcal{I}_S(2r-1)\), with \(S\) a zero-dimensional scheme, called the singularity scheme of the foliation. A scheme \(Y\subseteq S\) is said to be a uniqueness set for \(\mathcal {F}\) if \(h^0(\mathcal {I}_Y\otimes \Theta_{\mathbb {P}^2}(r-1)) =1\) and it is said to be minimal if \(\deg (Y)\) is minimal among the uniqueness schemes of \(\mathcal {F}\). \(\mathcal {F}\) is called non-degenerate if \(S\) is reduced. This paper discuss the existence of minimal uniqueness sets for foliations, giving several existence results for non-degenerate foliations and examples of degenerate ones with wild behaviour. Any reader will see the explicit results and the up-to-date bibliography on the problem.