Real plane algebraic curves with asymptotically maximal number of even ovals (Q817955)

The paper is devoted to a problem related to the Ragsdale conjecture, the conjecture proposed by V. Ragsdale in 1906. The statement of the conjecture is as follows: for any nonsingular curve of degree \(2k\) in the real projective plane \(\mathbb{R} \mathbb P^2\), one has \(p\leq\frac {3k(k-1)}{2}+1\) and \(n\geq\frac{3k(k-1)} {2}\), where \(p\) (respectively, \(n)\) is the number of even ovals (respectively, odd ovals) of the curve. (An oval of a nonsingular curve of an even degree is called even (odd), if it lies inside of even (odd) number of other ovals of this curve.) The Ragsdale conjecture for \(n\) was disproved by \textit{O. Viro} in 1979 [Soviet Math. Dokl. 22, 566--570 (1980; Zbl 0481.14009)]: in his counterexamples \(n=3k(k-1)/2+1.\) The first counterexamples to the Ragsdale conjecture for \(p\) were constructed by the reviewer [C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Série I, 317, 277--282 (1993; Zbl 0787.14040)]. In these couterexamples, the difference between \(p\) (or \(n)\) and \(3k(k-1)/2+1\) is a quadratic function of \(k\): they are curves of degree \(2k\) in \(\mathbb{R} \mathbb P^2\) with \[ p=\frac{3k(k-1)} {2}+1+ \left[\frac{(k-3)^2+4}{8}\right], \] and curves of degree \(2k\) in \(\mathbb{R} \mathbb P^2\) with \[ n=\frac{3k(k-1)}{2}+\left[\frac{(k-3)^2+4}{8} \right]. \] The above counterexamples to the Ragsdale conjecture were improved by \textit{B. Haas} [C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. I, 320, 1507--1512 (1995; Zbl 0856.14020)] and the reviewer [Am. Math. Soc. Transl. Ser. 2, 202, 121--129 (2001; Zbl 1002.14011)]. An important open question is to find a sharp upper bound for the number of even (or odd) ovals of a nonsingular curve of degree \(2k\) in \(\mathbb{R} P^2\). The Harnack and Petrovsky inequalities give the bounds \(p\leq 7k^2/4-9k/4+3/2\) and \(n\leq 7k^2/4-9k/4+1\). In the paper under review, the author improves the previous counterexamples to the Ragsdale conjecture and obtains a complete answer to an asymptotical version of the above question. The two families of curves of degree \(2k\) constructed in the paper satisfy \(p/k^2\to_{k\to+\infty}7/4\) and \(n/k^2 \to_{k\to+\infty}7/4\), respectively. It shows that the upper bounds produced by the Harnack and Petrovsky inequalities are asymptotically sharp.