On planar rational cuspidal curves

Abstract

This thesis studies rational curves in the complex projective plane that are homeomorphic to their normalizations. We derive some combinatorial constraints on such curves from a result of Borodzik-Livingston in Heegaard-Floer homology. Using these constraints and other tools from algebraic geometry, we offer a solution to certain cases of the Coolidge-Nagata problem on the rectifiability of planar rational cuspidal curves, that is, their equivalence to lines under the Cremona group of birational automorphisms of the plane.