Minitwistor spaces, Severi varieties, and Einstein-Weyl structure (Q629926)

Consider a non-singular complex projective surface \(Z\) and a smooth rational curve \(Y\subset Z\). The self-intersection number of \(Y\) is 2 if and only if the deformations of \(Y\) inside \(Z\) are unobstructed and the deformation space is 3-dimensional. In this case, \textit{N. J. Hitchin} [Lect. Notes Math. 970, 79--99 (1982; Zbl 0507.53025)] proved that the deformation space admits an Einstein-Weyl structure (in the holomorphic category). In the present paper, the authors develop a similar theory for the Severi variety of rational curves, i.e., the space of nodal (instead of smooth) rational curves on a non-singular complex projective surface. If the surface has an appropriate real structure, then the real locus of the Severi variety turns out to be a positive definite Einstein-Weyl manifold.