Geometry of bisections of elliptic surfaces and Zariski \(N\)-plets. II. (Q2411451)

This paper is a continuation of the authors' previous paper, [Geom. Dedicata 178, 219--237 (2015; Zbl 1327.14177)], regarding the existence of low degree curves in the projective plane with certain contact properties with respect to a fixed divisor \(D\). This has implications for the splitting behaviour of the preimage of a curve in finite covers branched on \(D\). This, in turn, has implications for the topology of \(\mathbb{P}^2-D\). The authors construct contact conics (namely, conics that intersect \(D\) only at smooth points with even intersection multiplicity) to a variety of low degree curves, and use them to construct Zariski \(N\)-plets in low degree.