Cremona transformations and diffeomorphisms of surfaces (Q2389237)

Taking a real algebraic surface \(X\), the authors denote by \(\text{Aut}(X)\) the group of birational self-maps of \(X\) (invertible maps defined by quotient of polynomials) which are defined at any point of \(X\), and such that so is the inverse. This groups is naturally contained in the group \(\text{Diff}(X)\) of self-diffeomorphisms of \(X\). The main result of the paper consists of showing that if \(X\) is rational, then \(\text{Aut}(X)\) is dense in \(\text{Diff}(X)\). Note that in general, although \(\text{Aut}(X)\) has infinite dimension, it is generated by an algebraic group and by finitely many elements. In consequence, \(\text{Aut}(X)\) is more understandable than \(\text{Diff}(X)\) and the density result provides thus a good way to approximate diffeomorphisms of \(X\), when \(X\) is the torus, the sphere, or all non-orientable surfaces.