On the normal bundle of curves on nodal quartic surfaces (Q2707894)

The first part of the paper deals with curves passing through rational double points of surfaces over an algebraically closed field \(k\). Let char \(k = 0\) and let \(C\) be an irreducible non-singular curve with \(2C=S\cap F\), where \(S\) and \(F\) are surfaces and \(F\) has at most rational double points as singularities. It is proved that \(C\) can never pass through rational singularities of types \(A_{2n}\), \(n\in {\mathbb N}\), or \(E_6, E_8\). Necessary conditions for \(C\) to pass through singularities of other types are given. The major part of the paper is devoted to the study of irreducible curves \(C\) of degree \(6\) and arithmetic genus \(3\) on cubic and quartic surfaces in \({\mathbb P}^3\). It is shown that for char \(k \neq 2\), the minimal desingularisation \(X\) of a nodal quartic surface \(S\) in \({\mathbb P}^3\) with \(t\) nodes, \(1\leq t\leq 16\), is a \(K3\) surface. Assume that char \(k = 0\), \(10\leq t \leq 16\), \(C\) lies on \(S\) and \(2C = 3H\), \(H\) a hyperplane section of \(S\). It is proved that such a \(C\) must lie on a cubic Cayley surface \(F\) and pass through ten nodes of \(S\) and all four double points \(p_1,\cdots,p_4\) of \(F\). It is shown that the normal bundle of \(C\) in \(S\) is semistable, decomposable and \(\omega _C \approx {\mathcal O}_C(\sum_i p_i)\).