Finite abelian subgroups of the Cremona group of the plane

Jérémy Blanc

Published 2006-10-11Version 1

This work presents the conjugacy classes of finite abelian subgroups of the Cremona group of the plane. Using a well-known theory, this problem amounts to the study of automorphism groups of some Del Pezzo surfaces and conic bundles. We have thus to enumerate all the cases, which gives a long description, and then to show whether two cases are distinct or not, using some conjugacy invariants. For example, we use the non-rational curves fixed by one element of the group, and the action of the whole group on these curves. From this classification, we deduce a sequence of more general results on birational transformations, as for example the existence of infinitely many conjugacy classes of elements of order n, for any even number n, a result false in the odd case. We prove also that a root of some linear transformation of finite order is itself conjugate to a linear transformation.