Three chapters on Cremona groups

Abstract

In the first part of this article, we answer a question of I. Dolgachev, which is related to the following problem: given a birational map $f\in\mathrm{Bir}(\mathbb{P}^m_\mathbf{k})$ and a linear projective map $A\in\mathrm{PGL}_{m+1}(\mathbf{k})$, when is $A\circ f$ regularizable? Dolgachev's initial question is whether this may happen for all $A$ in $\mathrm{PGL}_{m+1}(\mathbf{k})$, and the answer is negative. We then look at the sequence $n\mapsto\mathrm{deg}\, f^n$, $f\in\mathrm{Bir}(\mathbb{P}^2_\mathbf{k})$. We show that there is no constraint on the sequence $n\mapsto\mathrm{deg}\, f^n-\mathrm{deg}\, f^{n-1}$ for small values of $n$. Finally we study the degree of pencils of curves which are invariant by a birational map. When f is a Halphen or Jonquières twist, we prove that this degree is bounded by a function of $\mathrm{deg}\, f$. We derive corollaries on the structure of conjugacy classes, and their properties with respect to the Zariski topology of $\mathrm{Bir}(\mathbb{P}^2_\mathbf{k})$.