Inflection Points of Real and Tropical Plane Curves

Erwan Brugallé and Lucia López de Medrano

Journal of Singularities
volume 4 (2012), 74-103

Received: 6 June 2011. Received in revised form: 15 February 2012.

DOI: 10.5427/jsing.2012.4e

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Abstract:

We prove that Viro's patchworking produces real algebraic curves with the maximal number of real inflection points. In particular this implies that maximally inflected real algebraic $M$-curves realize many isotopy types. The strategy we adopt in this paper is tropical: we study tropical limits of inflection points of classical plane algebraic curves. The main tropical tool we use to understand these tropical inflection points are tropical modifications.


Keywords:

Tropical geometry, Patchworking, Inflection points, Tropical modifications, Real algebraic curves


Author(s) information:

Erwan A. Brugallé L. López de Medrano
Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6, Unidad Cuernavaca del Instituto de Matemáticas
4 place Jussieu Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México
75005 Paris, France Cuernavaca, México
email: brugalle@math.jussieu.fr email: lucia@matcuer.unam.mx