A geometrical approach to Gordan-Noether's and Franchetta's contributions to a question posed by Hesse (Q1022273)

Classification of hypersurfaces of \(\mathbb P^n\) with vanishing Hessian is a classical still open problem. If \(n\leq 3\), the only such hypersurfaces are cones, but if \(n\geq 4\) this is no longer true, as shown by several authors including Gordan-Noether, Franchetta and Permutti. A detailed survey of this topic is given by \textit{C. Ciliberto}, \textit{F. Russo} and \textit{A. Simis} [Adv. Math. 218, No. 6, 1759--1805 (2008; Zbl 1144.14009)]. The main result of the article under review is a precise geometric characterization of the hypersurfaces with vanishing Hessian that are not cones in the case of \(\mathbb P^4\).