Fake Real Planes: exotic affine algebraic models of $\mathbb{R}^2$

Abstract

We study real rational models of the euclidean plane $\mathbb{R}^2$ up to isomorphisms and up to birational diffeomorphisms. The analogous study in the compact case, that is the classification of real rational models of the real projective plane $\mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^2$ is well known: up to birational diffeomorphisms, there is only one model. A fake real plane is a nonsingular affine surface defined over the reals with homologically trivial complex locus and real locus diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}^2$ but which is not isomorphic to the real affine plane. We prove that fake planes exist by giving many examples and we tackle the question: does there exist fake planes whose real locus is not birationally diffeomorphic to the real affine plane?