Point-balanced arrangements in the real projective plane and the Hirzebruch property

Abstract

A collection of $m \geq 2$ lines through the origin in $\mathbb{R}^2$ is balanced if the sum of the orthogonal projections onto these lines equals $m/2$ times the identity. A line arrangement in $\mathbb{RP}^2$, endowed with the round metric of curvature $1$, is point-balanced if the tangent lines at every vertex form a balanced collection. A line arrangement $\mathcal{A}$ in $\mathbb{RP}^2$ has the Hirzebruch property if it consists of $3k$ lines and every line contains exactly $k+1$ vertices. Using a Kempf--Ness convexity argument, we show that an irreducible arrangement $\mathcal{A}$ has the Hirzebruch property if and only if its projective equivalence class contains a point-balanced representative, unique up to orthogonal transformations. We then combine elementary properties of balanced collections of lines in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with spherical geometry to prove that every irreducible point-balanced arrangement is a reflection arrangement. This gives a new proof of Panov's classification of real Hirzebruch arrangements.