Caustics of plane curves, their birationality and matrix projections

Abstract

After recalling the notion of caustics of plane curves and basic equations, we first show the birationality of the caustic map for a general source point S in the plane. Then we prove more generally a theorem for curves D in the projective space of 3x3 symmetric matrices B. For a general 3x1 vector S the projection to the plane given by B --- BS is birational on D, unless D is not a line and D is contained in a plane of the form Delta_v = {B | Bv = 0}.

10 pages, to appear in a Springer Verlag volume dedicated to Klaus Hulek on the occasion of his 60-th birthday. Final version, added some remarks by the referee