On ramified covers of the projective plane. II: Generalizing Segre's theory (Q2428725)

The starting point of the paper is Segre's paper on the singularities of the branch curve \(B\) of a ramified cover \(\pi: X \to \mathbb{P}^2\), where \(X\) is a surface of any degree in \(\mathbb{P}^3\) (see \textit{B. Segre}, [Memorie Accad. d'Italia, Roma 1; Mat. Nr. 4, 31 p. (1930; JFM 56.0562.01)] and also \textit{O. Zariski} [Am. J. 51, 305--328 (1929; JFM 55.0806.01)]). Segre gave a necessary and sufficient condition for a curve to be the branch curve of a smooth surface in \(\mathbb{P}^3\). The present paper generalizes Segre's result to any smooth surface \(X \subset \mathbb{P}^N\), giving a necessary and sufficient condition for a pair of plane curves \(B,E\) to be the branch curve of a surface \(X \subset \mathbb{P}^N\) and the image of the double curve of a \(\mathbb{P}^3\)-model of \(X\). As a consequence the paper gives a new constructive proof of the \textit{O. Chisini} conjecture [Ist. Lombardo Sci. Lett., Rend., Cl. Sci. Mat. Natur., III. Ser. 8(77), 339--356 (1944; Zbl 0061.35305)], concerning the uniqueness of the generic ramified cover of the plane of degree \(\geq 5\) determined by its branch curve, so improving the results by \textit{Vik. S. Kulikov} [Izv. Math. 63, No. 6, 1139--1170 (1999); translation from Izv. Ross. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Mat. 63, No. 6, 83--116 (1999; Zbl 0962.14005); Izv. Math. 72, No. 5, 901--913 (2008); translation from Izv. Ross. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Mat. 72, No. 5, 63--76 (2008; Zbl 1153.14012)]. For part I, cf. [\textit{M. Friedman, M. Leyenson} and \textit{E. Shustin}, Int. J. Math. 22, No. 5, 619--653 (2011; Zbl 1233.14022)].