Varieties with nonconstant Gauss fibers (Q2504344)

The Gauss map of a projective variety \(X\) in \(N\)-dimensional projective space is the rational map associating to every non-singular point \(x\) of \(X\) the embedded tangent space to \(X\) at \(x\), viewed as an element of the Grassmannian of linear subspaces of \(\mathbb P^N\) of dimension equal to the dimension of \(X\). In characteristic \(0\), it is known that the general fibers of the Gauss map are linear spaces [see for instance \textit{F. L. Zak}, Tangents and secants of algebraic varieties, Translations Math. Monographs 127 (1993; Zbl 0795.14018)]. In positive characteristic this is no longer true in general. The first counterexample was given by \textit{A. H. Wallace} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 6, 321--342 (1956; Zbl 0072.16002)]. The paper under review presents a case in which the general fibers of the Gauss map are not all isomorphic. Specifically, a \(4\)-dimensional variety is constructed, such that the fibers of the Gauss map are isomorphic to sections of a fixed surface in \(\mathbb P^3\) cut out by a pencil of hyperplanes. The construction works over any algebraically closed field of positive characteristic, and can also be generalized to obtain varieties of higher dimension with analogous properties.