64 lines on smooth quartic surfaces (Q2354345)

Let \(k\) be a field of characteristic \(p\geq 0\) with \(p\neq 2,3\). The aim of this article is to study the configuration of lines on certain quartic surfaces in \(\mathbb{P}_k^3\). { Proposition}: (1) A line \(\ell\) on a geometrically smooth quartic surface \(S\) in \(\mathbb{P}^3_k\) intersects at most \(20\) other lines. (2) If \(\ell\) meets more than \(18\) lines on \(S\), then \(S\) can be given by a quartic polynomials of the form \[ x_3x_1^3+x_4x_2^3+x_1x_2q(x_3,x_4)+x_3g(x_3,x_4) \] where \(q, g\in \bar{k}[x_3,x_4]\) are homogeneous of degree \(2\), resp. \(3\). (3) The line \(\ell=\{x_3=x_4=0\}\) meets \(20\) lines on \(S\) if and only if \(x_4|g\). With this proposition at disposal, the main result of this article is obtained. { Theorem}. Let \(k\) be a field of characteristic \(p\geq 0\) with \(p\neq 2,3\). Then any geometrically smooth quartic surface over \(k\) contains at most \(64\) lines. In other words, there are no geometrically smooth quartic surfaces \(S\subset\mathbb{P}_k^3\) with more than \(64\) lines. In particular, the Schur quartic \(\{x^4-xy^3=z^4-zw^3\}\subset\mathbb{P}_k^3\) contains exactly \(64\) lines. In contrast, if \(k\) has characteristic \(3\), the Schur quartic may contain \(112\) lines. The proofs make heavy use of the theory of elliptic fibrations.