Exceptional moduli problems. II (Q5929530)

The author attempts to formulate some moduli problems associated with some arithmetic quotients of each of the four irreducible rank 3 Hermitian symmetric tube domains corresponding to the four \(\mathbb{R}\)-division algebras \(\mathbb{R},\mathbb{C},\mathbb{H}\) and the Cayley numbers. The approach starts from the observation that there are links, not fully explained, between these four symmetric tube domains and the four Severi varieties considered by Zak and others, namely the Veronese embedding of \(\mathbb{P}^2\) in \(\mathbb{P}^5\), the Segre embedding of \(\mathbb{P}^2\times \mathbb{P}^8\), the Plücker embedding of \(G(2,6)\) in \(\mathbb{P}^{14}\) and the embedding of the Cayley projective plane in \(\mathbb{P}^{26}\). In the first case, one is led to consider the intersections of the Veronese surface with quadric hypersurfaces, giving non-hyperelliptic curves of genus 3. The second case leads to a consideration of the intersections of the Segre variety with quadrics of codimension 2, giving a certain class of \(K3\) surfaces. These facts suggest that in the third case one should look at the intersections of \(G(2,6)\) with quadrics of codimension 4, which are in general Fano 4-folds; the author, with the cooperation of Brendan Hassett, is trying to construct a reasonable moduli space for these particular Fano 4-folds. The fourth case remains to be tackled.