Halphen pencils on quartic threefolds (Q1047668)

The paper under review classifies special pencils, called Halphen pencils, on smooth quartic threefolds \(X \subset \mathbb P^4\). A Halphen pencil is a one-dimensional linear system whose general element is an irreducible subvariety birational to a smooth variety of Kodaira dimension zero. In [Cent. Eur. J. Math. 7, No. 1, 1--45 (2009; Zbl 1183.14022)] it was proved that, for a general \(X\) every Halphen pencil is cut out by hyperplanes. The assertion is not true in general, as shown by an example in [\textit{V. A. Iskovskikh}, Russ. Math. Surv. 56, No.2, 207--291 (2001; Zbl 0991.14010)]. The authors prove that either an Halphen pencil on \(X\) is cut out by hyperplanes or \(X\) has a very special equation and the pencil is cut out by a pencil of quadrics.