On the configurations of points in \(\mathbb{P}^2\) with the Waldschmidt constant equal to two (Q2630019)

Let \(\mathcal{P} = \{P_{1},\dots, P_{s}\} \subset \mathbb{P}^{2}_{\mathbb{K}}\) be a finite set of \(s>0\) distinct points on the projective plane defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. Then we define \[ I = I(\mathcal{P}) = I(P_{1}) \cap \dots \cap I(P_{s}), \] where \(I(P_{i})\) is the defining ideal of point \(P_{i}\). The \(m\)-th symbolic power of \(I\) is defined to be the ideal \[ I^{(m)} = I(P_{1})^{m} \cap \dots \cap I(P_{s})^{m}. \] The famous Nagata-Zariski theorem tells us that \(I^{(m)}\) corresponds the set of forms vanishing along \(P_{i}\)'s with multiplicities \(\geq m\). Moreover, for \(I\) we define \(\alpha(I)\) to be the least degree of a minimal generator of \(I\). Now we can define the Waldschmidt constant of \(\mathcal{P}\) as \[ \widehat{\alpha}(I(\mathcal{P})) = \lim _{m \rightarrow \infty} \frac{\alpha(I^{(m)})}{m}. \] Using some properties of symbolic powers and Fekete's lemma one can show that the above limit exists and \[ \widehat{\alpha}(I(\mathcal{P})) = \inf_{m\geq 1} \frac{\alpha(I^{(m)})}{m}. \] In the present note the authors provide a complete characterization of configurations of points \(\mathcal{P}\) on the projective plane having \(\widehat{\alpha}(I(\mathcal{P})) = 2\). Theorem A. Let \(I(\mathcal{P})\) be the radical ideal of a finite set of points \(\mathcal{P}\) in \(\mathbb{P}^{2}_{\mathbb{K}}\). Then \(\widehat{\alpha}(I(\mathcal{P})) = 2\) if and only if \(\mathcal{P}\) {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[a)] consists of \(n\geq 4\) points, contained in a smooth conic, or; \item[b)] consists of \(r+s\) points, where \(s,r \geq 2\), and \(r\) points out of it lie on a line \(L_{1}\), and \(s\) points out of it lie on another line \(L_{2}\), or; \item[c)] consists of \(r+s+1\) points, where \(r,s\geq 2\), and \(r\) points out of it lie on a line \(L_{1}\), and \(s\) points out of it lie on another line \(L_{2}\), and the last point is the intersection point of these two lines, or; \item[d)] consists of \(6\) points given by the singular locus of a star configuration of \(4\) lines. \end{itemize}} An important tool which allowed to obtain the above classification is the following result/construction. Theorem B. For every integer \(d\), there exists a configuration of points \(\mathcal{P}\) in \(\mathbb{P}^{2}_{\mathbb{K}}\), such that for every positive integer \(m\) one has \(\alpha(I(\mathcal{P})^{(m)}) = dm\). In particular, \(\widehat{\alpha}(I(\mathcal{P})) = d\). The idea behind this construction is quite easy. For a positive integer \(d\) one considers a partition \(d = d_{1} +\dots+ d_{k}\). For each \(i\) let \(C_{i} \subset \mathbb{P}^{2}_{\mathbb{K}}\) be a reduced and irreducible curve of degree \(d_{i}\), and for every \(i\) one imposes \(\mathcal{P}_{i}\) to be a set of \(d\cdot d_{i}\) distinct simple points on \(C_{i}\) such that \(Z_{i} \cap Z_{j} = \emptyset\) for \(i\neq j\). Then our set \(\mathcal{P}\) in Theorem B is defined to be \(\mathcal{P} = \bigcup_{i=1}^{k} \mathcal{P}_{i}\).