Singularities and Genus of the k-Ellipse
arXiv:1908.01414
Abstract
A k-ellipse is a plane curve consisting of all points whose distances from k fixed foci sum to a constant. We determine the singularities and genus of its Zariski closure in the complex projective plane. The paper resolves an open problem stated by Nie, Parrilo and Sturmfels in 2008.