Classification of certain affine plane curves (Q7004639)

In this short interesting note, the authors prove that two affine plane curves \(C : x^a-y^b=1\) with \(a, b > 1\) and \(a \le b\) and \(C' : x^{a'}-y^{b'}=1\) with \(a', b' > 1\) and \(a' \le b'\) defined over the complex field \(\mathbb C\) are isomorphic to each other if and only if \(a=a'\) and \(b=b'\).\N\NThe proof consists of several observations. The first Betti number \(b_1\) of \(C\) is \((a-1)(b-1)\). Hence if \(C \cong C'\) then the genera are equal \(g(C)= g(C')\). So, \((a-1)(b-1)=(a'-1)(b'-1)\). The next observation is that the projective closure \(\overline{C}\) of \(C\) with respect to the inclusion \(\mathbb A^2=\mathrm{Spec} \mathbb C[x,y] \hookrightarrow \mathbb P^2=\mathrm{Proj} \mathbb C[X,Y,Z]\) with \(x=X/Z\) and \(y=Y/Z\) has one point \(P\) at infinity, i.e., \(\overline{C}\setminus C=\{P\}\), and \(P\) has \(d\)-places over \(P\) with \(d=\gcd(a,b)\). For any discrete valuation of the function field \(\mathbb C(C)\) associated to these places, say \(v\), the poles of \(x\) and \(y\) have values \(-(b/d)\) and \(-((b-a)/d)\). Then the value semigroup \(\Gamma(C)\) generated by \(b/d\) and \((b-a)/d\) coincides with \(\Gamma(C')\) if \(C \cong C'\). From these data we obtain \(d=d'\), \(a=a'\) and \(b=b'\) provided \(C \cong C'\).