Models of curves over discrete valuation rings (Q821487)

Let \(C\) be a smooth projective curve over a discrete valuation field \(K\), specified by an affine equation \(f(x,y)=0\). The author explicitly constructs a (minimal) regular model with normal crossings, at least when a generic condition is met (he indicates that this condition may be waive in a future work). This allows him to give many interesting properties of the model, such as easy to read conditions on \(C\) or its Jacobian having good, semistable and tame reduction; a basis of global sections of the relative dualizing sheaf; an action of the absolute Galois group on the étale cohomology when \(C\) is tamely ramified. The article is illustrated by many examples with nice pictures of the special fibres (the author provides on his personal webpage an algorithm to automatically produce these drawings). Among interesting cases and as illustration of the strength of his method, the author constructs regular models of Fermat curves \(x^p+y^p=1\) over \(\mathbb{Z}_p\) when \(p \geq 3\). The main idea is to use toric resolutions (and under the present generic condition, only one) instead of repeated blow-ups to get the regular model. The setting can be seen as a \(3\)-d analogue of the classical Baker's theorem which gives the genus (but also a basis of regular differentials) for generic plane curves over a field in terms of the number of interior integral points inside the Newton polygon of \(f\). Presently, the third dimension is obtained by adding the valuations of the coefficients of \(f\) to the polygon.