Twistor geometry of the flag manifold (Q2108993)

The study of \(\mathbb{P}^3\) with the structure of twistor space over the \(4\)-dimensional real sphere has deserved a lot of interest in the literature. In the paper under review, the authors develop a similar research in the case of the flag manifold \(F=SU(3)/T\) of points/lines in \(\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{C}}^2\) viewed as a twistor space with respect to a certain projection \(\pi\) to \(\mathbb{P}^2\). The starting point of the paper is the assignation of a bidegree to each surface and curve in \(F\) and the study of curves and surfaces with low bidegree. For instance, surfaces of bidegree \((1,0)\) can be seen at the same time as a \(\mathbb{P}^1\)-bundle with respect to the first natural projection and as a blow-up structure with respect to the second. Surfaces of degree \((1,1)\) (which are toric del Pezzo surfaces) are also completely classified. After this, the twistor structure of \(F\) under the projection \(\pi\) is deeply studied. The twistor fibers form a real family of curves of bidegree \((1,1)\) (they are indeed conics under the Segre embedding of \(F\)) and their projection to \(\mathbb{P}^2\) are determined to be surfaces of revolution which first fundamental form is identified. Moreover, a careful study of the configuration of twisted fibers contained in the different kinds of surfaces of bidegree \((1,1)\) is carried over.