Curves on Heisenberg invariant quartic surfaces in projective 3-space (Q1999430)

Let \((x,y,z,w)\) be homogeneous coordinates in the complex projective space \(\mathbb{P}^3\). The subgroup \(H\) of \(\mathrm{Aut}(\mathbb{P}^3)\) generated by the following four transformations: \((x,y,z,w) \mapsto (z,w,x,y)\), \((x,y,z,w) \mapsto (y,x,w,z)\), \((x,y,z,w) \mapsto (x,y, -z,-w)\), and \((x,y,z,w) \mapsto (x,-y, z,-w)\) is named Heisenberg group. Clearly, \(H \cong (\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})^4\). Quartic surfaces in \(\mathbb{P}^3\), invariant under \(H\), are called Heisenberg invariant quartics. Their family is parameterized by \(\mathbb{P}^4\) and its general member is smooth. This family and some of its special loci have been widely studied in the literature, both in classical treatises as well as in the past century. In particular, \textit{W. Barth} and \textit{I. Nieto} [J. Algebr. Geom. 3, No. 2, 173--222 (1994; Zbl 0809.14027)] studied the locus of Heisenberg invariant quartics containing a line. Understanding which Heisenberg invariant quartics contain a conic has been the motivation of the paper under review, as the author says in the Introduction. A first result is that a general invariant quartic contains \(320\) smooth conics. They are found by a direct computation relying the geometry of the family. Further results deal with the very general element of the family. Actually, the author shows that for a very general Heisenberg invariant quartic the Picard number is \(16\) and as a corollary of this fact he obtains that the sublattice of invariant divisor classes is generated by the class of the hyperplane section. In particular, any invariant curve on such a surface is a complete intersection. Next the author determines the Picard lattice of a very general Heisenberg invariant quartic and shows that it is generated by the \(320\) smooth conics.