Fundamental groups of complements of plane curves and symplectic invariants

Introducing the notion of stabilized fundamental group for the complement of a branch curve in , we define effectively computable invariants of symplectic 4-manifolds that generalize those previously introduced by Moishezon and Teicher for complex projective surfaces. Moreover, we study the structure of these invariants and formulate conjectures supported by calculations on new examples.     

Normal Euler classes of knotted surfaces and triple points on projections

We present a new formula relating the normal Euler numbers of embedded surfaces in -space and the number of triple points on their projections into -space. This formula generalizes Banchoff's formula between normal Euler numbers and branch points on the projections.

     

Symmetric extensions of dihedral quandles and triple points of non-orientable surfaces

Quandles with involutions that satisfy certain conditions, called good involutions, can be used to color non-orientable surface-knots. We use subgroups of signed permutation matrices to construct non-trivial good involutions on extensions of odd order dihedral quandles.For the smallest example of order 6 that is an extension of the three-element dihedral quandle R₃, various symmetric quandle homology groups are computed, and applications to the minimal triple point number of surface-knots are given.     

Exceptional curves on smooth rational surfaces with not nef and of self-intersection zero

A -curve is a smooth rational curve of self-intersection , where is a positive integer. In 1998 Hirschowitz asked whether a smooth rational surface defined over the field of complex numbers, having an anti-canonical divisor not nef and of self-intersection zero, has -curves. In this paper we prove that for such a surface , the set of -curves on is finite but non-empty, and that may have no -curves. Related facts are also considered.