Enriques diagrams and log-canonical thresholds of curves on smooth surfaces (Q976827)

Let \(X\) be a smooth affine surface with coordinate ring \(A\). If \(f\in A\) has an isolated singularity at the point \(P\) of \(X\), then any fixed system of local parameters \({\mathcal R}\) at \(P\) determines a term ideal \(a_f\) of \(f\) (via the monomials of \(f\) with respect to \({\mathcal R}\)). Then one can consider the log-canonical thresholds of the divisor of the curve \(\mathrm{div}(f)\) and of \(a_f\) at \(P\). The authors prove that for a suitable choice of the system of local parameters at \(P\) the log-canonical threshold of the curve can be computed by the log-canonical threshold of the term ideal. Moreover, this number has an additional minimality property too. The proof is based on the relation between monomial ideals and Enrique diagrams and on the study of the log-canonical threshold of unibranch Enriques diagrams. It also shows that the log-canonical threshold depends only on a non-degenerate path of the diagram.