In this article, we study Galois points of plane curves and the extension of the corresponding Galois group to $\mathrm{Bir}(\mathbb{P}^2)$. We prove that if the Galois group has order at most $3$, it always extends to a subgroup of the Jonquières group associated with the point $P$. Conversely, with a degree of at least $4$, we prove that it is false. We provide an example of a Galois extension whose Galois group is extendable to Cremona transformations but not to a group of de Jonquières maps with respect to $P$. In addition, we also give an example of a Galois extension whose Galois group cannot be extended to Cremona transformations.

We investigate the equation $D=x^4-y^4$ in field extensions. As an application, for a prime number p, we find solutions to $p=x^4-y^4$ if $p\equiv 11$ (mod 16) and $p^3=x^4-y^4$ if $p\equiv 3$ (mod 16) in all cubic extensions of $\mathbb{Q}(i)$.

We study plane curves over finite fields whose tangent lines at smooth $\mathbb {F}_q$-points together cover all the points of $\mathbb {P}^2(\mathbb {F}_q)$.

We define a suitably tame class of singular symplectic curves in 4-manifolds, namely those whose singularities are modeled on complex curve singularities. We study the corresponding symplectic isotopy problem, with a focus on rational curves with irreducible singularities (rational cuspidal curves) in the complex projective plane. We prove that every such curve is isotopic to a complex curve in degrees up to five, and for curves with one singularity whose link is a torus knot. Classification results of symplectic isotopy classes rely on pseudo-holomorphic curves together with a symplectic version of birational geometry of log pairs and techniques from four-dimensional topology.

We prove that the maximal number of conics in a smooth sextic $K3$ -surface $X\subset \mathbb {P}^4$ is 285, whereas the maximal number of real conics in a real sextic is 261. In both extremal configurations, all conics are irreducible.

We study the fundamental groups of the complements to curves on simply connected surfaces, admitting non-abelian free groups as their quotients. We show that given a subset of the Néron–Severi group of such a surface, there are only finitely many classes of equisingular isotopy of curves with irreducible components belonging to this subset for which the fundamental groups of the complement admit surjections onto a free group of a given sufficiently large rank. Examples of subsets of the Néron–Severi group are given with infinitely many isotopy classes of curves with irreducible components from such a subset and fundamental groups of the complements admitting surjections on a free group only of a small rank.

In response to an open problem raised by S. Rabinowitz, we prove that

$$ \begin{align*} \begin{array} [c]{l} \left( \left( x^{2}+y^{2}\right) {}^{2}+8y\left( y^{2}-3x^{2}\right) \right) {}^{2}+432y\left( y^{2}-3x^{2}\right) \left( 351-10\left( x^{2}+y^{2}\right) \right) \\ =567^{3}+28\left( x^{2}+y^{2}\right) {}^{3}+486\left( x^{2}+y^{2}\right) \left( 67\left( x^{2}+y^{2}\right) -567\times18\right) \end{array} \end{align*} $$

In 2006, Kenyon and Okounkov Kenyon and Okounkov [12] computed the moduli space of Harnack curves of degree d in ${\mathbb {C}\mathbb {P}}^2$. We generalise their construction to any projective toric surface and show that the moduli space ${\mathcal {H}_\Delta }$ of Harnack curves with Newton polygon $\Delta $ is diffeomorphic to ${\mathbb {R}}^{m-3}\times {\mathbb {R}}_{\geq 0}^{n+g-m}$, where $\Delta $ has m edges, g interior lattice points and n boundary lattice points. This solves a conjecture of Crétois and Lang. The main result uses abstract tropical curves to construct a compactification of this moduli space where additional points correspond to collections of curves that can be patchworked together to produce a curve in ${\mathcal {H}_\Delta }$. This compactification has a natural stratification with the same poset as the secondary polytope of $\Delta $.

The Severi variety $V_{d,n}$ of plane curves of a given degree $d$ and exactly $n$ nodes admits a map to the Hilbert scheme $\mathbb{P}^{2[n]}$ of zero-dimensional subschemes of $\mathbb{P}^{2}$ of degree $n$. This map assigns to every curve $C\in V_{d,n}$ its nodes. For some $n$, we consider the image under this map of many known divisors of the Severi variety and its partial compactification. We compute the divisor classes of such images in $\text{Pic}(\mathbb{P}^{2[n]})$ and provide enumerative numbers of nodal curves. We also answer directly a question of Diaz–Harris [‘Geometry of the Severi variety’, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.309 (1988), 1–34] about whether the canonical class of the Severi variety is effective.

We prove the existence of a smooth and non-degenerate curve $X\subset \mathbb{P}^{n}$, $n\geqslant 8$, with $\deg (X)=d$, $p_{a}(X)=g$, $h^{1}(N_{X}(-1))=0$, and general moduli for all $(d,g,n)$ such that $d\geqslant (n-3)\lceil g/2\rceil +n+3$. It was proved by C. Walter that, for $n\geqslant 4$, the inequality $2d\geqslant (n-3)g+4$ is a necessary condition for the existence of a curve with $h^{1}(N_{X}(-1))=0$.

F. Cukierman asked whether or not for every smooth real plane curve $X\subset \mathbb{P}^{2}$ of even degree $d\geqslant 2$ there exists a real line $L\subset \mathbb{P}^{2}$ such $X\cap L$ has no real points. We show that the answer is yes if $d=2$ or 4 and no if $n\geqslant 6$.

We prove that if $C$ is a reflexive smooth plane curve of degree $d$ defined over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_{q}$ with $d\leqslant q+1$, then there is an $\mathbb{F}_{q}$-line $L$ that intersects $C$ transversely. We also prove the same result for non-reflexive curves of degree $p+1$ and $2p+1$ when $q=p^{r}$.

The splitting number of a plane irreducible curve for a Galois cover is effective in distinguishing the embedded topology of plane curves. In this paper, we define the connected number of a plane curve (possibly reducible) for a Galois cover, which is similar to the splitting number. By using the connected number, we distinguish the embedded topology of Artal arrangements of degree $b\,\ge \,4$, where an Artal arrangement of degree $b$ is a plane curve consisting of one smooth curve of degree $b$ and three of its total inflectional tangents.

We rewrite in modern language a classical construction by W. E. Edge showing a pencil of sextic nodal curves admitting A5 as its group of automorphism. Next, we discuss some other aspects of this pencil, such as the associated fibration and its connection to the singularities of the moduli of six-dimensional abelian varieties.

The dimensions of the graded quotients of the cohomology of a plane curve complement $U\,=\,{{\mathbb{P}}^{2}}\,\backslash \,C$ with respect to the Hodge filtration are described in terms of simple geometrical invariants. The case of curves with ordinary singularities is discussed in detail. We also give a precise numerical estimate for the difference between the Hodge filtration and the pole order filtration on ${{H}^{2}}\left( U,\,\mathbb{C} \right)$.

One can easily show that any meromorphic function on a complex closed Riemann surface can be represented as a composition of a birational map of this surface to $\mathbb{C}{{\mathbb{P}}^{2}}$ and a projection of the image curve froman appropriate point $p\in \mathbb{C}{{\mathbb{P}}^{2}}$ to the pencil of lines through $p$ . We introduce a natural stratification of Hurwitz spaces according to the minimal degree of a plane curve such that a given meromorphic function can be represented in the above way and calculate the dimensions of these strata. We observe that they are closely related to a family of Severi varieties studied earlier by J. Harris, Z. Ran, and I. Tyomkin.

We exhibit a set of minimal generators of the defining ideal of the Rees Algebra associated with the ideal of three bivariate homogeneous polynomials parametrizing a proper rational curve in projective plane, having a minimal syzygy of degree 2.

We exhibit a numerical method to compute three-point branched covers of the complex projective line. We develop algorithms for working explicitly with Fuchsian triangle groups and their finite-index subgroups, and we use these algorithms to compute power series expansions of modular forms on these groups.

Let $\mathcal{A}$ be a line arrangement in the complex projective plane ${{\mathbb{P}}^{2}}$ and let $M$ be its complement. A rank one local system $\mathcal{L}$ on $M$ is admissible if, roughly speaking, the cohomology groups ${{H}^{m}}\left( M,\,\mathcal{L} \right)$ can be computed directly from the cohomology algebra ${{H}^{*}}\left( M,\,\mathbb{C} \right)$. In this work, we give a sufficient condition for the admissibility of all rank one local systems on $M$. As a result, we obtain some properties of the characteristic variety ${{\mathcal{V}}_{1}}\left( M \right)$ and the Resonance variety ${{\mathcal{R}}_{1}}\left( M \right)$.

In this work, we describe a method to construct the generic braid monodromy of the preimage of a curve by a Kummer cover. This method is interesting since it combines two techniques, namely, the construction of a highly non-generic braid monodromy and a systematic method to go from a non-generic to a generic braid monodromy. The latter process, called generification, is independent from Kummer covers, and it can be applied in more general circumstances since non-generic braid monodromies appear more naturally and are oftentimes much easier to compute. Explicit examples are computed using these techniques.