On the geometry of Poincaré's problem for one-dimensional projective foliations (Q2783602)

The paper deals with one-dimensional holomorphic foliations \(F\) on projective space of arbitrary dimension with singularities of complex codimension at least two. The author investigates the question to find an upper bound of the degree \(d(S)\) of an algebraic curve \(S\) tangent to the foliation in terms of the degree \(d(F)\) of the foliation. In general, there is no such a bound: one can construct simple examples, when an invariant curve of a (variable) foliation of a given degree may have arbitrarily large degree [\textit{A. Lins Neto}, Some examples for Poincaré and Painlevé problems. Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4)35, No.~2, 231-266 (2002; Zbl 1130.34301)]. These examples involve singular separatrices and dicritical singularities. However, as it was shown in [\textit{M. Brunella}, Publ. Mat., Barc. 41, No. 2, 527-544 (1997; Zbl 0912.32024)], if \(S\) is a non-dicritical separatrix, then \(d(S)\leq d(F)+2\). Another result of this kind was obtained in [\textit{M. M. Carnicer}, Ann. Math. (2) 140, No. 2, 289-294 (1994; Zbl 0821.32026)]. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe main result of the paper under review (Theorem 1) concerns complex algebraic varieties \(V\) tangent to \(F\). It gives an upper bound of some extrinsic geometric invariants of \(V\subset\mathbb P^n\) in terms of the degree of \(F\). It implies the following corollaries. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINETheorem 2. Let \(F\) be a foliation as above on \(\mathbb P^2\) of degree \(d(F)\geq 2\), \(S\) be an \(F\)-invariant irreducible curve of degree \(d(S)>1\). Then NEWLINE\[NEWLINEd(S)(d(S)-1)-\sum_q(\mu_q-1)\leq(d(F)+1)d(S),NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where the summation is taken over all the singular points \(q\) of \(S\), \(\mu_q\) are the corresponding Milnor numbers. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINECorollary 2. If all the singularities of \(S\) are ordinary double points, then NEWLINE\[NEWLINEd(S)\leq d(F)+2.NEWLINE\]NEWLINE Corollary 2 was earlier proved in [\textit{D. Cerveau} and \textit{A. Lins Neto}, Ann. Inst. Fourier 41, No. 4, 883-903 (1991; Zbl 0734.34007)]. The new approach presented in the paper under review yields a short proof. Another corollary concerns the case of higher dimension \(n\geq 2\) and the curve \(S\subset\mathbb P^n\) being a smooth complete intersection that is not contained in the singular set of the foliation. It says that NEWLINE\[NEWLINEd(S)\leq \left(\frac{d(F)+n}{n-1}\right)^{n-1}.NEWLINE\]NEWLINE One more corollary gives an upper bound of genus of a smooth irreducible curve of degree \(d(S)>1\) tangent to \(F\) of \(d(F)\geq 2\) (in arbitrary dimension): NEWLINE\[NEWLINEg\leq\frac{(d(F)-1)d(S)}2+1.NEWLINE\]