On the Cremona contractibility of unions of lines in the plane (Q522108)

The paper under review deals with contractible plane curves, that is, curves \(C\subseteq\mathbb{P}^2\) such that there exists a birational selfmap of \(\mathbb{P}^2\) with a resolution of indeterminacies \(p: S\to \mathbb{P}^2\) and \(q: S\to \mathbb{P}^2\) such that \(q(\tilde C)\) is a finite set, where \(\tilde C\) is the strict transform of \(C\) in \(S\). The study of contractible plane curves goes back to \textit{G. Castelnuovo} and \textit{F. Enriques} [Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo 14, 290--302 (1900; JFM 31.0658.02)] who proved that an irreducible curve is contractible if and only if \(H^0(\mathbb{P}^2,mK_{\mathbb{P}^2}+C)=0\) for all \(m\geq1\). The second condition was later replaced by Kumar and Murthy with \(H^0(\mathbb{P}^2,K_{\mathbb{P}^2}+C)=0\) and \(H^0(\mathbb{P}^2,2K_{\mathbb{P}^2}+C)=0\). \textit{S. Iitaka} [Tokyo J. Math. 11, No. 2, 363--379 (1988; Zbl 0668.14025)] proved an analogue result for a plane reduced curve with two irreducible components. In general, if \(C\) is contractible, then \(H^0(\mathbb{P}^2,mK_{\mathbb{P}^2}+ C)=0\) for all \(m\geq 1\). We say in this case that ``all adjoint linear systems vanish''. In the paper under review, the authors prove that if \(C\) is the union of \(d\geq 12\) lines, then \(C\) is contractible if and only if \(H^0(S,m(K_{S}+\tilde C))=0\) for all \(m\geq1\), where \(S\to \mathbb{P}^2\) is a resolution of singularities of \(C\) and \(\tilde C\) is the strict transform of \(C\) in \(S\). The result is proved by first studying the geometric properties of the \(C\) such that all their adjoint linear systems vanish, and more precisely the multiplicities at the singular points, and then using explicit geometric constructions in order to prove the contractibility of exactly those with \(H^0(S,m(K_{S}+\tilde C))=0\) for all \(m\geq1\).