Topological inequalities for conic-line arrangements with some prescribed singularities

Source abstract

We study arrangements of conics and lines in the complex projective plane from the viewpoint of 4-manifolds. We introduce combinatorial conic-line arrangements, the conic-line counterpart of rank-3 matroids, together with their topological and smooth realisations, and we ask which restrictions on a complex arrangement survive when its components are replaced by locally-flat spheres in the same homology classes with the same local singularity models. For an ADE combinatorial conic-line arrangement of even total degree admitting a topological realisation we prove a Hirzebruch-type inequality; the proof uses only branched covers and the local topology of rational double points. In the complex-algebraic category we show that equality holds exactly when the arrangement is a maximising curve, hence free with prescribed exponents. We then introduce divisible and odd combinatorial conic-line arrangements and obtain inequalities and congruences for the multiplicity sequence of their resolutions, via cyclic branched covers, the G-signature theorem, spin structures, and Furuta's 10/8-theorem.