Title
Sixty-Four Curves of Degree Six
Abstract
We present a computational study of smooth curves of degree six in the real projective plane. In the Rokhlin-Nikulin classification, there are 56 topological types, refined into 64 rigid isotopy classes. We developed software that determines the topological type of a given sextic and used it to compute empirical probability distributions on the various types. We list 64 explicit representatives with integer coefficients, and we perturb these to draw many samples from each class. This allows us to explore how many of the bitangents, inflection points, and tensor eigenvectors are real. We also study the real tensor rank, the construction of quartic surfaces with prescribed topology, and the avoidance locus, which is the locus of all real lines that do not meet a given sextic. This is a union of up to 46 convex regions, bounded by the dual curve.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1080/10586458.2017.1360808
EXPERIMENTAL MATHEMATICS
Field
DocType
Volume
Real projective plane,Topology,Smooth curves,Algebra,Mathematical analysis,Mathematics
Journal
28.0
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
2.0
1058-6458
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
5
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Nidhi Kaihnsa100.34
Mario Kummer200.68
Daniel Plaumann3388.86
Mahsa Sayyary Namin400.68
Bernd Sturmfels5926136.85