Linear Systems of Plane Curves with Base Points of Equal Multiplicity

Abstract

In this article we address the problem of computing the dimension of the space of plane curves of degree $d$ with $n$ general points of multiplicity $m$. A conjecture of Harbourne and Hirschowitz implies that when $d \geq 3m$, the dimension is equal to the expected dimension given by the Riemann-Roch Theorem. Also, systems for which the dimension is larger than expected should have a fixed part containing a multiple $(-1)$-curve. We reformulate this conjecture by explicitly listing those systems which have unexpected dimension. Then we use a degeneration technique developed in a previous article ("Degenerations of Planar Linear Systems", alg-geom/9702015) to show that the conjecture holds for all $m \leq 12$.