Groups of polynomial automorphisms of the plane (Q884781)

According to a well-known theorem of \textit{H. W. E. Jung} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 184, 161--174 (1942; Zbl 0027.08503)] and \textit{W. van der Kulk} [Nieuw. Arch. Wiskd., III. Ser. 1, 33--41 (1953; Zbl 0050.26002)], for any field \(k\), the group \(\mathrm{Aut}(k^2)\) of the polynomial automorphisms of the plane \(k^2\) is the amalgamated product of the affine group \(A\) and the elementary group (or de Jonquières group) \(E\), over their intersection. The authors study the embeddings of lattices from simple Lie groups into the group \(\mathrm{Aut}(k^2)\), and are interested mostly in those that are not conjugated to an embedding into \(A\). One one the results of the article under review asserts that if \(G\) is a simple real Lie group that is embedded in \(\mathrm{Aut}(k^2)\), then \(G\) is either \(\mathrm{PSO}(1,n)\) or \(\mathrm{PSU}(1,n)\), for some integer \(n\), and that if \(G\) is not isomorphic to \(\mathrm{PSO}(1,2)\), the image of \(G\) is up to conjugation in the affine group \(A\). The existence of special embeddings (i.e. that are not conjugate to affine embeddings) of \(\mathrm{PSO}(1,2)\) into \(\mathrm{Aut}(k^2)\) is studied a lot in the article. In the case where \(k\) is the field \(\mathbb{R}\) of real numbers, the authors show that there exists for any \(g\) a subgroup of \(\mathrm{Aut}(k^2)\) that is isomorphic to the fundamental group \[ \Gamma_g=\langle a_1,b_1,...,a_g,b_g\;| \;\prod_{i=1}^g [a_i,b_i]=1\rangle \] of the surface of genus \(g\), and that contains elements of Henon type. Finally, an answer to a question of \textit{K. Dekimpe} [Geom. Dedicata 93, 47--56 (2002; Zbl 1014.20020)] on cristallographic groups acting on \(\mathbb{R}^2\) is given.