Symmetric Orientations of Dividing T-curves

In 1974, Rokhlim introduced complex orientations for nonsingular real algebraic plane projective curves of type I. Here we give a definition of symmetric orientations and of "type" for T-curves which are PL-curves constructed using a combinatorial method called T-construction. An important aspect of T-construction is that, under particular conditions, the constructed T-curve has the isotopy type of a nonsingular real algebraic plane projective curve. T-construction is in fact a particular case of the method of construction of real algebraic projective varieties due to O. Ya. Viro. We prove that if an algebraic curve is associated to a T-curve by the Viro process, then the type of the T-curve coincides with the type of the algebraic curve and its symmetric orientations are complex orientations as defined by Rokhlin. The main result of this paper is the classification theorem for T-curves of type I.