The group of Cremona transformations generated by linear maps and the standard involution (Q5962654)

The paper under review studies the subgroup \(G_n\) of \(\mathrm{Bir}(\mathbb{P}_k^n)\) generated by \(\mathrm{Aut}((\mathbb{P}_k^n)\) and the involution \[ \sigma_n([x_0:\dots:x_n])=[\frac{1}{x_0}:\dots:\frac{1}{x_n}]. \] If \(n=2\) and \(k=\mathbb{C}\), by the Noether-Castelnuovo theorem \(\mathrm{Bir}(\mathbb{P}^2)=G_2\), if \(n\geq 3\) or \(k\neq \mathbb{C}\), this is not true anymore. Theorem 1.1 describes, over a field \(k\) with \(\mathrm{char}(k)\neq 2\), the intersection of \(G_n\) with the monomial transformations, which are transformations of the form \[ [x_0:\dots:x_n]\mapsto\left[1:\alpha_1\left(\frac{x_1}{x_0}\right)^{a_{11}}\cdots\left(\frac{x_n}{x_0}\right)^{a_{1n}}:\dots:\alpha_n\left(\frac{x_1}{x_0}\right)^{a_{n1}}\cdots\left(\frac{x_n}{x_0}\right)^{a_{nn}}\right]. \] In dimension 2 and over \(\mathbb{C}\) by classical results \(\sigma_2\) is regular on \(\hat{\mathbb{P}}^2\) the blow-up of \(\mathbb{P}^2\) in three points in general position. The involution \(\sigma_2\) exchanges the strict transform of a line through two of these points with an exceptional divisor of the blow-up. Proposition 3.1 and Theorem 1.4 extend this description to \(n\geq 2\) and any field \(k\) with \(\mathrm{char}(k)\neq 2\). In Proposition 3.1 the resolution of indeterminacies of \(\sigma_n\) is described and in Theorem 1.4 the exceptional divisors that are images of hyperplanes via elements of \(G_n\) are characterized. In sections 5, 6 the authors study the intersection of \(G_n\) with the subgroup of Tame automorphisms of \(\mathbb{A}^n\) and section 7, 8 deal with \(G_2\) and \(G_3\), respectively.