On the curvature of the real amoeba

Abstract

For a real smooth algebraic curve $A \subset (\mathhbb{C}^*)^2$, the amoeba $\mathcal{A} \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ is the image of $A$ under the map Log : $(x,y) \mapsto (\log |x|, \log | y |)$. We describe an universal bound for the total curvature of the real amoeba $\mathcal{A}_{\mathbb{R} A}$ and we prove that this bound is reached if and only if the curve $A$ is a simple Harnack curve in the sense of Mikhalkin.