A second-order invariant of the Noether-Lefschetz locus and two applications (Q2493476)

Fix an integer \(d \geq 5\). Let \(U_d\) denote the set of all smooth degree \(d\) surfaces in \(\mathbb {P}^3\). Let \(NL_d\) be the set of all \(X\in U_d\) containing a curve which is not the intersection of \(X\) with another surface (the Noether-Lefschetz locus). It is a countable union of proper algebraic subset of \(U_d\) and the low codimension irreducible components of \(NL_d\) have a geometric description (e.g. all \(X\in U_d\) containing a line. See quoted papers by Carlson, Green, Griffiths, Voisin and others for many such results). Some general conjectures were disproved in a deep paper of \textit{C. Voisin} [C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. I Math. 313, No. 10, 685--687 (1991; Zbl 0751.14020)]. Here the author gives a second order study of \(NL_d\). As a corollary she shows that the non-reduced component of \(NL_5\) is given by the surfaces containing two coplanar line. Furthermore, for arbitrary \(d\) she characterizes reduced components of codimension at most \(\phi (d)\), with \(\phi (d) = O(d^3)\).