Generators for the ideal of an integral curve lying on a smooth quartic surface (Q1183380)

Let \(C\) be an integral curve in \(\mathbb{P}^ 3\) lying on a smooth quartic surface \(S\). The purpose of this paper is to determine the degrees of the elements in a minimal generating set of the homogeneous ideal of \(C\), continuing work of the same authors for curves on a smooth quadric or cubic surface. The technique is to study certain cohomology groups which arise in a natural way from \(C\) and depend only on the element of Pic\(S\) associated to \(C\). Here the problem is somewhat more complicated than it was in the case of a cubic surface since there are several non-isomorphic smooth quartic surfaces, having different Picard groups; hence the results are not as detailed as they are in the cubic case. Bounds are given on the number of generators, and in particular it is asked whether gaps can occur in the degrees of the generators. These results are related to the geometry of \(C\) and of \(S\) in a nice way, and involve liaison. Slightly more detailed results are obtained at the end of the paper for the case where \(S\) is a so-called \textit{Mori quartic}, since in this case more is known about the geometry of \(S\).