Seshadri constants of quartic surfaces (Q1374730)

Let \(L\) be a nef line bundle on a smooth projective variety \(X\). The Seshadri constant of \(L\) at a point \(x\in X\) is defined to be the real number \[ \varepsilon(L,x) =_{\text{def}} \sup\{ \varepsilon\in\mathbb{R}\mid f^* L-\varepsilon E\text{ is nef}\}, \] where \(f: \widetilde{X}\to X\) is the blow-up of \(X\) at \(x\) and \(E\subset \widetilde{X}\) the exceptional divisor. The global Seshadri constant of \(L\) is the infimum \(\varepsilon(L)= \inf_{x\in X} \varepsilon(L,x)\). Recent interest in Seshadri constants derives on the one hand from their application to adjoint linear systems. On the other hand, Seshadri constants are very interesting invariants of polarized varieties in their own right. Smooth surfaces \(X\subset\mathbb{P}^3\) of degree \(d\leq 3\) trivially have Seshadri constant \[ \varepsilon(X) =_{\text{def}} \varepsilon({\mathcal O}_X(1))=1. \] In the present paper the first non-trivial case \(d=4\) is studied. It is shown that there are only three possible values of the Seshadri constant of a quartic surface: \(2\), \(\frac43\) and 1, where the sub-maximal ones account for special geometric situations.