Finding the so-called characteristic numbers of the complex projective plane $ \mathbb{C} {P}^{2} $ is a classical problem of enumerative geometry posed by Zeuthen more than a century ago. For a given $d$ and $g$ one has to find the number of degree $d$ genus $g$ curves that pass through a certain generic configuration of points and at the same time are tangent to a certain generic configuration of lines. The total number of points and lines in these two configurations is $3d- 1+ g$ so that the answer is a finite integer number. In this paper we translate this classical problem to the corresponding enumerative problem of tropical geometry in the case when $g= 0$. Namely, we show that the tropical problem is well posed and establish a special case of the correspondence theorem that ensures that the corresponding tropical and classical numbers coincide. Then we use the floor diagram calculus to reduce the problem to pure combinatorics. As a consequence, we express genus 0 characteristic numbers of $ \mathbb{C} {P}^{2} $ in terms of open Hurwitz numbers.

This paper gives a complete classification of essentially commutative C*-algebras whose essential spectrum is homeomorphic to S2n−1 by their characteristic numbers. Let 1, 2 be such two C*-algebras; then they are C*-isomorphic if and only if they have the same n-th characteristic number. Furthermore, let γn() = m then is C*-isomorphic to C*(Mzl, …, Mzn) if m = 0, is C*-isomorphic C*(Tz1, …, Tzn−1, Tznm) if m ≠ 0. Some examples are given to show applications of the classfication theorem. We finally remark that the proof of the theorem depends on a construction of a complete system of representatives of Ext(S2n−1).

Consider the plane cubic curves over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 2. By blowing up the parameter space $P^9$ twice we obtain a variety B of complete cubics. We then compute the characteristic numbers for various families of cubics by intersecting cycles on B.