Construction of free curves by adding lines to a given curve (Q6143033)

Let \(C \subset \mathbb P^2\) be a plane curve with equation \(F = 0\). The \textit{polar curve} \(\Delta_q (C)\) of \(C\) with respect to the point \(q = (\alpha,\beta,\gamma) \in \mathbb P^2\) is given by \(\alpha F_x + \beta F_y + \gamma F_z =0\). \textit{A. Josse} and \textit{F. Pène} calculated the intersection multiplicity \((C, \Delta_q (C))_p\) for any singular point \(p \in C\) [Commun. Algebra 42, 2442--2475 (2014; Zbl 1300.14036)]. Here the authors reformulate this calculation, showing that it is equivalent to the statement that for any singular point \(p \in C\), the intersection multiplicity of \(C\) with the Hessian curve \(H_C\) at \(p\), \((C,H_C)_p\), is equal to \(3 \mu_p (C) + m_p (C) - 3 + \sum m_L (C)\) where \(\mu_p (C)\) is the Milnor number, \(m_p (C)\) is the multiplicity of the singularity of \(C\) at \(p\) and the sum is taken over all lines \(L\) in the reduced projective tangent cone \(T C_p (C)\). The new results are the following. If \(C\) is a reduced curve of degree \(d \geq 3\) and has \(k\) distinct tangent lines at a point \(p\), then the intersection multiplicity satisfies \((C, H_C)_p \geq 3k (k-1)\) with equality if and only if \(p\) is an ordinary simple \(k\)-multiple point (meaning each tangent line meets \(C\) with multiplicity two). This gives a sharp upper bound for \(i (C)\), the sum of the inflection orders taken over all inflection points of \(C\), in terms of \(d\) and the number of singular points \(s\). This improves on a result of \textit{E. Kunz} [Introduction to plane algebraic curves. Translated from the 1991 German edition by Richard G. Belshoff. Boston, MA: Birkhäuser (2005; Zbl 1078.14041)]. Now let \(S = k[x,y,z]\) be the homogeneous coordinate ring of \(\mathbb P^2\) and \(\mathrm{Der} (S) = \{a \partial_x + b \partial_y + c \partial_z: a,b,c \in S\}\) be the free \(S\)-module of \(\mathbb C\)-linear derivations. For a reduced curve \(C\) with equation \(F=0\), the graded \(S\)-module of derivations preserving the ideal \(\langle F \rangle\) is \(D(F)=\{\partial \in \mathrm{Der} (S): \partial F \in \langle F \rangle\}\). Define \(C\) to be a \textit{free curve} if \(D(F)\) is a free graded \(S\)-module, or equivalently if \(D_0 (F) = \{ \partial \in \mathrm{Der} (S): \partial F = 0\}\) is a free graded \(S\)-module, in which case the \textit{exponents} of \(C\) are the degrees of a basis for \(D_0 (F)\). The main results show how to add inflectional tangent lines to certain classes of curves to obtain free curves. The authors introduce \textit{supersoluble} curves \(C\), those having a \textit{modular point} \(p\), meaning that the projection \(\pi_p: \mathbb P^2 - \{p\} \to \mathbb P^1\) induces a locally trivial fibration of the complement \(\mathbb P^2 - C\) to \(\mathbb P^1\). They conjecture that supersoluble curves are free and give supporting evidence. In the last section, the authors use a strengthened version of a result of \textit{H. Schenck} et al. [Math. Res. Lett. 25, No. 6, 1977--1992 (2018; Zbl 1411.14062)] to construct families of free conic-line arrangements by adding lines to the conic-line arrangements of maximal Tjurina number classified by \textit{V. Beorchia} and \textit{R. M. Miró-Roig} [Mediterr. J. Math. 21, No. 1, Paper No. 16, 23 p. (2024; Zbl 07792696)].