A nine-line counterexample to a conjecture on the minimal degree of Jacobian relations

Abstract

We construct two arrangements of nine lines in the complex projective plane with isomorphic intersection lattices but with different minimal degrees of Jacobian relations. The common weak combinatorics is \[ (n_2,n_3,n_4)=(9,7,1), \] so the example is not the classical Ziegler-Yuzvinsky pair, whose weak combinatorics is $(n_{2},n_{3}) = (18,6)$. For the two defining equations $f$ and $g$ we prove \[ {\rm mdr}(f)=4,\qquad {\rm mdr}(g)=5. \] Since the degree is $d=9$, the first equality gives ${\rm mdr}(f)<d/2$. Hence the pair gives a counterexample to the Generalized Terao Conjecture.