Stability of cubic 3-folds. (Q696213)

The author classifies the (semi)stable cubic 3-folds according to their singular locus. Precisely he proves that a cubic 3-fold \(X\subset \mathbb{P}^4\) is stable (respectively semistable) if and only if it has only double points of type \(A_n\), \(N\leq 4\) (respectively either it has only double points of type \(D_4\), \(A_n\), \(n\leq 5\) or it is isomorphic to the secant variety of the rational normal curve in \(\mathbb{P}^4)\). The proof is based on the study of some suitable one-parameter subgroups of \(SL(5)\). Moreover the closed orbits of the natural action of SL(5) on \(\text{Sym}^3 \mathbb{C}^5\) give an explicit description of the ``border components'' of a compactification of their moduli space.