L^2-Betti numbers of plane algebraic curves

Abstract

In [DJL07] it was shown that if A is an affine hyperplane arrangement in C^n, then at most one of the L^2-Betti numbers of its complement is non--zero. We will prove an analogous statement for complements of any algebraic curve in C^2. Furthermore we also recast and extend results of [LM06] in terms of L^2-Betti numbers.

Final version. To be published by the Michigan Mathematical Journal. 12 pages