No label defined (Q4028060)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0747.00024.] The following generalization of the well-known result of Fulton-Deligne on the abelianness of the fundamental group of the complement of a nodal curve in \(\mathbb{P}^ 2\) is proved. Theorem. Let \(\Gamma_ 1\), \(\Gamma_ 2\) be (not necessarily irreducible) curves in \(\mathbb{P}^ 2\), \(E\subset\mathbb{P}^ 2\) a line and \(\mathbb{C}^ 2=\mathbb{P}^ 2-E\). Suppose \(\Gamma_ 1\), \(\Gamma_ 2\) intersect transversally and \(\Gamma_ 1\cap\Gamma_ 2\cap E=\varphi\). Then \(\pi_ 1(\mathbb{C}^ 2-\Gamma_ 1\cup\Gamma_ 2)=\pi_ 1(\mathbb{C}^ 2- \Gamma_ 1)\times\pi_ 1(\mathbb{C}^ 2 -\Gamma_ 2)\). The important point is that \(\Gamma_ i\) is not assumed to intersect \(E\) transversally. Since \(\Gamma_ 1\), \(\Gamma_ 2\) are allowed to be reducible, the above theorem extends easily to finitely many curves \(\Gamma_ 1\), \(\Gamma_ 2,\ldots,\Gamma_ n\) with appropriate assumption. -- The proof uses linear automorphisms of \(\mathbb{C}^ 2\) to deform one of the curves and Zariski's method of pencils.