Eva Elduque

The higher order degrees are Alexander‐type invariants of complements to an affine plane curve. In this paper, we characterize the vanishing of such invariants for a curve C given as a transversal union of plane curves and in terms of the finiteness and the vanishing properties of the invariants of and , and whether or not they are irreducible. As a consequence, we prove that the multivariable Alexander polynomial is a power of , and we characterize when in terms of the defining equations of and . Our results impose obstructions on the class of groups that can be realized as fundamental groups of complements of a transversal union of curves.