Pfaffian representations of cubic surfaces (Q2439336)

The author studies effective methods for representing a cubic form \(F\) in four variables (over a non-necessarily algebraically closed field \(K\) of characteristic \(0\)) as the Pfaffian of a skew-symmetric matrix of linear forms. When the surface \(S\) defined by \(F=0\) is smooth, then the existence of Pfaffian representations is linked with the existence of arithmetically Gorenstein sets of points on \(S\). The author determines a method for the construction of a Pfaffian representation of \(F\) over \(K\), provided that one knows a smooth \(K\)-point \(P\in S\) such that \(T_P(S)\cap S\) does not decompose in a union of lines. When the \(K\)-point \(P\) is not available, the author still constructs a Pfaffian representation of \(F\) over an extension \(K'\) of \(K\), of degree \([K':K]\leq 6\). The bound on the degree drops to \(3\), under mild assumptions on the singularities of \(S\).