Chisini's conjecture on generic coverings of the projective plane

Let BPC2B\subset\mathbb{P}^2_{\mathbb{C}} be a cuspidal branch curve, and let

f:SPC2,f:SPC2f:S\longrightarrow\mathbb{P}^2_{\mathbb{C}},\qquad f':S'\longrightarrow\mathbb{P}^2_{\mathbb{C}}

be generic coverings of degree at least 55, meaning that their branch curve has only nodes and cusps and the local monodromy at a smooth point of the branch curve is a transposition. Two such coverings are equivalent when they are equivalent as coverings of PC2\mathbb{P}^2_{\mathbb{C}}.

Chisini's conjecture. Given two generic coverings f:SPC2f:S\longrightarrow\mathbb{P}^2_{\mathbb{C}} and f:SPC2f':S'\longrightarrow\mathbb{P}^2_{\mathbb{C}}, both of degree at least 55, with the same branch curve BB, the coverings ff and ff' are equivalent.

The conjecture asks whether a generic covering of degree at least 55 is determined by its branch curve. The supplied text gives no resolution or qualification of its status.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Fabrizio Catanese, “Differentiable and deformation type of algebraic surfaces, real and symplectic structures”, arXiv:0705.1522 (2007).

Additional references

4 papers in this index state this conjecture (1998–2007). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:math/9807154, arXiv:math/9807153, arXiv:math/9803144.

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