Companion varieties for Hesse, Hesse union dual Hesse arrangements (Q6170617)

In the paper under review, the authors study the so-called companion varieties for some line arrangements over the complex numbers. The starting point is the notion of unexpected hypersurfaces. Definition. We say that a reduced set of points \(Z \subset \mathbb{P}^{N}\) admits an unexpected hypersurface of degree \(d\) if there exists a sequence of non-negative integers \(m_{1}, \dots m_{s}\) such that for all general points \(P_{1}, \dots P_{s}\) the zero dimensional subscheme \(P=m_{1}P_{1} + \dots + m_{s}P_{s}\) fails to impose independent conditions on forms of degree \(d\) vanishing along \(Z\) and the set of such forms is non-empty. Assume now that there is a set of points \(Z \subset \mathbb{P}^{N}\) which admits a unique unexpected hypersurface \(H_{Z,P}\) of degree \(d\) and multiplicity \(m\) at a general point \(P=(a_{0}: \dots : a_{N}) \in \mathbb{P}^{N}\). Let \[F_{Z}((x_{0}:\, \dots \,: x_{N}),(a_{0}:\, \dots \,: a_{N})) = 0\] be a homogeneous polynomial equation of \(H_{Z,P}\). Let \(g_{0}, \dots , g_{M}\) be a basis of the vector space \([I(Z)]_{d}\) of homogeneous polynomials of degree \(d\) vanishing at all points of \(Z\). Under some reasonable conditions the unexpected hypersurface \(H_{Z,P}\) comes from a bi-homogeneous polynomial \(F_{Z}((x_{0}: \dots : x_{N}),(a_{0}: \dots : a_{N}))\) of bi-degree \((m,d)\). Indeed, \(F_{Z}\) can be written in a unique way as a combination \[(\star): \quad F_{Z} = h_{0}(a_{0} : \dots : a_{N})g_{0}(x_{0} : \dots : x_{N}) + \cdots + h_{M}(a_{0} : \dots : a_{N})g_{M}(x_{0} : \dots : x_{N}),\] where \(g_{0}(x_{1}: \dots : x_{N})\), \dots , \(g_{M}(x_{0} : \dots x_{N})\) are homogeneous polynomials of degree \(d\) and \(h_{0}(a_{0} : \dots : a_{N})\), \dots , \(h_{M}(a_{0}: \dots : a_{N})\) are homogeneous polynomials of degree \(m\). Therefore, there are two rational maps naturally associated with \((\star)\), namely \[\phi : \mathbb{P}^{N} \ni (x_{0} : \dots : x_{N}) \mapsto(g_{0}(x_{0}: \dots : x_{N}): \dots : g_{M}(x_{0}: \dots : x_{N})) \in \mathbb{P}^{N},\] \[\psi : \mathbb{P}^{N} \ni (a_{0} : \dots : a_{N}) \mapsto(h_{0}(a_{0}: \dots : a_{N}): \dots : h_{M}(a_{0}: \dots : a_{N})) \in \mathbb{P}^{N}.\] The images of these maps are the companion varieties. The main result of the paper under review can be formulated as follows. Main Theorem. The image \(S\) of \(\phi\) is a smooth arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay rational surface in the case of the Hesse and the merger of the Hesse and the dual Hesse arrangements. 1) In the case of the Hesse arrangement, the surface \(S\) is of degree \(13\). More precisely, it is the plane blow up in the \(12\) points of \(Z(\mathrm{Hesse})\) (see system (2) therein for details) embedded into \(\mathbb{P}^{8}\) with the complete linear system of the quintics through \(Z(\mathrm{Hesse})\). Its ideal \(I(S)\) is generated by \(15\) quadrics. 2) In the case of the merger of the Hesse and the dual Hesse, the surface \(S\) is of degree \(43\). More precisely, it is the plane blown-up in the \(21\) points of \(Z(\mathrm{Hesse} \cup \mathrm{dualHesse})\) (see system (6) therein for details), embedded into \(\mathbb{P}^{23}\) with the complete linear system of the octics through \(Z(\mathrm{Hesse} \cup\mathrm{dualHesse})\). Its ideal \(I(S)\) is generated by \(210\) quadrics.