Polyhedral groups and pencils of \(K3\)-surfaces with maximal Picard number (Q1884544)

The Picard number of a regular surface is the number of elements in a minimal set of generators for its Picard group. For minimal non-singular \(K3\) surfaces, this number ranges between 1 and 19. The authors investigate a construction of pencils of \(K3\) surfaces, which starts with the three ``polyhedral'' subgroups \(G_6, G_8, G_{12}\) of \(SO(4,{\mathbb R})\), i.e. the central extensions of \(T\times T\), \(O\times O\) and \(I\times I\) (\(T,O,I\) being the rotation groups of a tetrahedron, a octahedron and a icosahedron, respectively). Each group \(G_n\) determines a pencil \(X_n(t)\) of degree \(n\) surfaces in \(\mathbb P^3\) which are invariant under \(G_n\). Setting \(Y_n(t)=X_n(t)/G_n\), it turns out that a minimal resolution of \(Y_n(t)\), for \(X_n(t)\) general (smooth) element of any pencil, is a \(K3\) surfaces with Picard number 19. The resulting pencils of \(K3\) surfaces are not isotrivial: the structure of \(Y_n(t)\) changes as \(t\) varies. The geometry of surfaces in each pencil is deeply investigated. In particular, the authors show that the each pencil \(X_n(t)\) has 4 special, singular elements, whose quotients give rise to singular \(K3\) surfaces with Picard number 20.