Real plane sextics without real points (Q6998715)

A real algebraic variety is a complex algebraic variety equipped with an anti-holomorphic involution, referred to as the real structure. The authors prove that the equisingular deformation type of a simple real plane sextic curve (i.e., with \(A-D-E\)-singularities) with smooth real part is determined by its real homological type, i.e., the polarization, exceptional divisors, and real structure recorded in the homology of the covering \(K3\)-surface. As an illustration, they obtain an equisingular deformation classification of real plane sextics with empty real part. They show that there are 169 equisingular equivariant deformation families, contained in 159 real forms of 139 complex lattice types of 104 sets of singularities. For completeness, the authors consider the few non-simple sextics as well.