Quartic unexpected curves and surfaces (Q2297352)

In the paper under review, the authors construct, probably, the first example of an unexpected surface in \(\mathbb{P}^{3}_{\mathbb{C}}\). Let \(p_{1}, \dots, p_{s}\) be a finite set of \(s\geq 1\) generic points in \(\mathbb{P}^{N}_{\mathbb{C}}\). It is a classical problem in algebraic geometry (sitting in the subject called interpolation problems) to study the linear series \(\mathcal{L}(d;m_{1}, \dots, m_{s})\) of hypersurfaces of degree \(d\) passing through \(p_{i}\)'s with multiplicity at least \(m_{i}\) for every \(i \in \{1, \dots,s\}\). The first obstacle in the studies is to determine the dimension of such a system. Let us recall that the expected dimension of \(\mathcal{L}(d;m_{1}, \dots, m_{s})\) is the number given by a naive count of the conditions, namely \[\operatorname{edim}\mathcal{L}(d;m_{1}, \dots, m_{s}) = \max \bigg\{-1, |\frac{N + d}{N} - \sum_{i=1}^{s} \frac{N + m_{i} -1}{ N} -1 \bigg\}.\] One always has that \[\dim \mathcal{L}(d;m_{1}, \dots, m_{s}) \geq \operatorname{edim} \mathcal{L}(d;m_{1}, \dots, m_{s}).\] If the above equality holds, then we say that the system \(\mathcal{L}(d;m_1,\dots,m_s)\) is non-special. Otherwise it is called special. Very recently, \textit{D. Cook II} et al. [Compos. Math. 154, No. 10, 2150--2194 (2018; Zbl 1408.14174)] have opened a new path of studies in linear series. They suggested to look at systems of the form \[\mathcal{L}(d;Z,m_{1}, \dots,m_{s}),\] where \(Z\) is a finite set of points (a reduced scheme) and \(p_{1}, \dots, p_{s}\) are generic fat points (having multiplicities \(\geq 2\)). The main result of the paper tells us that there exists an unexpected (i.e., \textit{special} from a viewpoint of the associated linear series) quartic surface in \(\mathbb{P}^3_{\mathbb{C}}\) with \(31\) base points and a general triple point. It is well-known that such a quartic surface is rational. In Section 5, the authors propose a syzygetic conjecture which should allow to determine/construct unexpected surfaces in \(\mathbb{P}^{3}_{\mathbb{C}}\).