On a class of spaces of skew-symmetric forms related to Hamiltonian systems of conservation laws (Q6047280)

This paper deals with a geometric problem originating in mathematical physics, more precisely, in the geometric theory of systems of conservation laws. Such problems can be reduced to study of line congruences (\(n\)-parameter families of lines in \(\mathbb{P}^{n+1}\)). An important class of such systems comes from the associativity equations of 2D topological field theory. The condition of existence of a third-order Hamiltonian structure for such systems reduces to a purely geometric problem: classify \(n\)-planes \(H\) in the second exterior power of an \((n+2)\)-space \(V_{n+2}\), such that the induced map Sym\(^2H\to\wedge^4 V_{n+2}\) has one-dimensional kernel generated by a nondegenerate quadratic form on \(H^*\). For \(n=2,3\) this problem is trivial and for \(n\leq 5\) it is wild. The authors are dealing with the remaining case \(n=4\). They show that the variety parametrizing such planes is an irreducible 38-dimensional PGL\((V_6)\)-invariant subvariety in the Grassmannian \(G(4,\wedge^2V_6)\). To each \(n\)-plane \(H\) satisfying these conditions they associate a so-called characteristic cubic surface \(S_H\), that is the locus of rank \(4\) two-forms in \(H\), and show that the induced map to the moduli space of cubic surfaces in \(\mathbb{P}^3\) is dominant and hence generically finite. They also provide a complete classification of 4-planes \(H\) with the reducible characteristic surface \(S_H\). The paper is concluded by a (rather ambitious) conjecture about the uniqueness of a system with given properties with the additional property of integrability, and some arguments supporting this conjecture that involve the reducibility of characteristic surfaces of corresponding \(n\)-spaces.