On the Stein factorization of resolutions of two-dimensional Keller maps (Q2257010)

The Jacobian conjecture asks whether every étale morphism \(F: \mathbb A^n \to \mathbb A^n\) over \(\mathbb C\) must be invertible. There are positive results for some special cases, but the general question remains open for all \(n >1\). For \(n=2\) such a map \(F\) extends to a rational map \(F:X = \mathbb P^2 \to \mathbb P^2=Y\). By a sequence of blow-ups of \(X\) at points outside of \(\mathbb A^2\) one obtains a birational morphism \(\pi:Z \to X\) and a generically finite map \(\varphi:Z \to Y\) which agrees with \(F\) on \(\mathbb C^2\). If \(L \subset X\) denotes the line at infinity, then \(\pi^{-1}(L)\) is a tree of smooth rational curves \(E\) which satisfy exactly one of the following: (a) \(\varphi(E) = L\), (b) \(\varphi(E)\) is a point on \(L\), (c) \(\varphi(E)\) is a curve other than \(L\) or (d) \(\varphi(E)\) is a point not on \(L\). The author studies what restrictions a counterexample to the Jacobian conjecture for \(n=2\) would impose on the configuration of the components \(E_i\) of \(\pi^{-1}(L)\). Letting \(\tau: Z \to W\) and \(\rho: W \to Y\) be the Stein factorization of \(\varphi\) and \(E_i\) the images of the exceptional curves on \(W\) (the curves of types (a) and (c)), the author proves that \(W - \cup E_i = \mathbb A^2\), all the \(E_i\) pass through the point \(P=\tau(\pi^{-1}(L))\) and are otherwise disjoint, all curves \(E_i\) of type (a) are smooth away from \(P\) while each curve \(E_i\) of type (c) has at most one singularity \(P_i \neq P\), and the surface \(W\) is singular only at \(P\) and the \(P_i\) with \(P_i \in W\) a cyclic quotient singularity. Letting \(\rho_i\) be the map on normalizations induced by \(\rho: E_i \to \rho(E_i)\), he proves that \(\rho_i\) is an isomorphism when \(E_i\) is singular only at \(P\) and otherwise \(E_i-\{P, P_i\}\) is isomorphic to an algebraic torus and \(\rho_i\) is isomorphic to a map \(x \mapsto x^{f_i}\) for some \(f_i \geq 1\). Finally, if \(r_i\) is the ramification index of \(\rho\) at \(E_i\), the the di-critical log-ramification divisor \(R = \sum r_i E_i\) is ample on \(W\), the sum being taken over \(E_i\) of type (c). His method is inductive, looking at the construction of the blow-up map \(\pi\) one step at a time and keeping track of the augmented canonical class along the way.