Plane quartic with exactly two nodes

ID: plane-quartic-with-exactly-two-nodes

Over the complex numbers the displayed projective plane curve has precisely two singular points, and . At either, with , , , the leading quadratic term is , so they are ordinary double points. The derivative equations in the chart have no solution: writing forces both and . The Bézout theorem proves irreducibility, since a factorization into degrees would require at least three intersections, whereas the only possible component intersections are the two transverse ordinary double points.

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