A partial description of the Chow variety of 1-cycles of degree 3 in \({\mathbb P}^3\) (Q2419438)

The Chow variety $\mathscr{C}_{r,d} (X)$ of effective $r$-dimensional cycles of degree $d$ on a projective variety $X$ was originally constructed by \textit{W.-L. Chow} and \textit{B. L. van der Waerden} in the 1930s [Math. Ann. 113, 692--704 (1937; Zbl 0016.04004)]. Here the author analyzes the Chow variety $\mathscr{C}_{1,3} (\mathbb P^3)$ of $1$-cycles of degree $3$ in $\mathbb P^3$. \par The Chow variety $\mathscr{C}_{1,3} (\mathbb P^3)$ has four generically smooth irreducible components of dimension $12$: (1) the component $\mathscr{C}^1$ whose general member is a nonsingular plane cubic; (2) the component $\mathscr{C}^2$ whose general member is a twisted cubic curve; (3) the component $\mathscr{C}^3$ whose general member is a disjoint union of a line and a conic; (4) the component $\mathscr{C}^4$ whose general member is a disjoint union of three lines. \par For each $1 \leq k \leq 4$ the author uses the Hilbert-Chow morphism $\varphi_k: H(3,2-k) \to \mathscr{C}^k$ to study the Chow components $\mathscr{C}^k$, where $H(d,g)$ is the Hilbert scheme of curves $C \subset \mathbb P^3$ of degree $d$ and arithmetic genus $g$. These Hilbert schemes are fairly well understood by work of \textit{R. Piene} and \textit{M. Schlessinger} [Am. J. Math. 107, 761--774 (1985; Zbl 0589.14009)], \textit{D. Chen} [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2008, Article ID rnn067, 17 p. (2008; Zbl 1147.14009)], \textit{M. Martin-Deschamps} and \textit{D. Perrin} [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 29, No. 6, 757--785 (1996; Zbl 0892.14005)], \textit{S. Nollet} [Compos. Math. 106, No. 2, 203--210 (1997; Zbl 0890.14016)] and \textit{D. Chen} et al. [Commun. Algebra 39, No. 8, 3021--3043 (2011; Zbl 1238.14012)]. Work of \textit{A. Lee} [Harvard University senior thesis (2000)] is also quite relevant here. \par The author stratifies each component $\mathscr{C}^k$ by types closed under the $\text{PGL}_4$-action, computing the dimension of each stratum and illustrating each with stratification diagrams indicating the specializations. For some of these He uses these do describe the intersections of the components $\mathscr{C}^k$ and give information on the singular locus. The software Macaulay2 developed by Grayson and Stillman is used for at least one calculation of a specialization of a family.