Birational involutions of P^2

TL;DR

This paper provides a modern classification of birational involutions of the projective plane P^2 using Mori theory, offering a clearer and more convincing proof compared to classical methods.

Contribution

It introduces a Mori theory-based approach to classify birational involutions of P^2 up to conjugacy, updating the classical results with modern techniques.

Findings

Classification of birational involutions of P^2 achieved

Mori theory provides a clearer proof framework

Classical results are confirmed with improved methods

Abstract

We give a "modern" version, based on Mori theory, of the classification of birational involutions of P^2 up to conjugacy. The result has been known for more than one century but the classical proofs are not always convincing.