\(p\)-elementary subgroups of the Cremona group (Q2456195)

The Cremona group \(\text{Bir}(\mathbb{P}^2)\) is the group of birational transformations of the complex plane. The study of this group, and especially its finite subgroups, interested mathematicians for more than a century. The present article gives a classification of conjugacy classes of \(p\)-elementary maximal subgroups of \(\text{Bir}(\mathbb{P}^2)\). Suppose that a \(G\) is a subgroup of \(\text{Bir}(\mathbb{P}^2)\), isomorphic to \((\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z})^r\). The following are proved: 1. Assume \(p\geq 5\). Then \(r\leq 2\), and if \(r=2\) \(G\) is conjugate to the \(p\)-torsion subgroup of the diagonal torus of \(\text{PGL}_3=\text{Aut} (\mathbb P^2)\). 2. Assume \(p=3\). Then \(r\leq 3\), and if \(r=3\) \(G\) is conjugate to the \(3\)-torsion of the diagonal torus of \(\text{PGL}_4\), acting on the Fermat cubic surface \(\sum_{i=0}^3 X_i^3=0\). 3. Assume \(p=2\). Then \(r\leq 4\), and if \(r=4\) either \(G\) is conjugate to the \(2\)-torsion sugroup of \(\text{PGL}_5\) acting on a quartic del Pezzo surface or \(G\) is conjugate to a group of automorphism of a conic bundle. The conjugacy classes are described, using the classical tools of del Pezzo surfaces and conic bundles, and some Galois cohomology. Note that new results are now known, especially a classification of finite subgroups given by \textit{I. Dolgachev} and \textit{V. Iskovskikh} [Finite subgroups of the plane Cremona group, preprint, \url{arXiv:math/0610595}], and another one on finite abelian subgroups, given by the reviewer [\textit{J. Blanc}, C. R., Math., Acad. Sci. Paris 344, No. 1, 21--26 (2007; Zbl 1111.14003)].