Bialgebra and geometry of plane quartics. (Q700503)

The author gives an introduction to the theory of bialgebras and applies it to conics, quartics, and sextics of projective planes over an algebraically closed field \(K\) of characteristic \(0\). Let \(W\) be the \(K\)-vector space of \(n\)-ary linear forms, \(W^*\) the dual space, and \(\langle\;,\;\rangle\) the two natural pairings. A {bimultiplication} consists of two bilinear forms \([\;,\;]:W\times\,W\rightarrow\,W^*\) and \([\;,\;]:W^*\times\,W^*\rightarrow\,W\). The bialgebra \((W,[\;,\;])\) is called {symmetric} (respectively {skew symmetric}), if both the trilinear functions \(\Phi(a,b,c)=\langle [a,b],c\rangle \), \(a,b,c\in\,W\) and \(\Psi(p,q,r)=\langle [p,q],r\rangle \), \(p,q,r\in\,W^*\) are symmetric (respectively alternative). If \((W,[\;,\;])\) is skew symmetric with PGL(\(W\))-equivariant bimultiplication and \(m\) a natural then there exists a unique PGL(\(W\))-equivariant bimultiplication on the symmetric powers \(S^m(W)\) such that \([a^m,b^m]=[a,b]^m\) and \([p^m,q^m]=[p,q]^m\); for even \(m\) the bimultiplication on \(S^m(W)\) is symmetric. Two elements \(A,B\in\,S^m(W)\) are {apolar}, if \(\langle A,\hat B\rangle =\langle B,\hat A\rangle =0\) where \(\hat A=[A,A]/2\). Put \(a^{2m}=:s_1\), \(b^{2m}=:s_2\), \(c^{2m}=:s_3\), \((bc)^m=:s_4\), \((ca)^m=:s_5\), \((ab)^m=:s_6\), i.e., \(s_k\in\,S^{2m}(W)\), and \([b,c]^{2m}=:t_1\), \([c,a]^{2m}=:t_2\), \([a,b]^{2m}=:t_3\), \(([c,a][a,b])^m=:t_4\), \(([a,b][b,c])^m=:t_5\), \(([b,c][c,a])^m=:t_6\), i.e., \(t_k\in\,S^{2m}(W^*)\). Let \(U_{2m}(a,b,c)\) and \(V_{2m}(a,b,c)\) be the set of all linear combinations of \(s_1,\dots,s_6\) respectively \(t_1,\dots,t_6\), then \((U_{2m}(a,b,c),V_{2m}(a,b,c))\) is a subalgebra of \((S^{2m}(W),[\;,\;])\) called by the author {Salmon subalgebra}. Let \(U'_{2m}(a,b,c)\) and \(V'_{2m}(a,b,c)\) be the pencil spanned by \(s_1+s_2+s_3\) and \(s_4+s_5+s_6\) respectively \(t_1+t_2+t_3\) and \(t_4+t_5+t_6\), then \((U'_{2m}(a,b,c),V'_{2m}(a,b,c))\) is a subalgebra of \((S^{2m}(W),[\;,\;])\) called by the author {Wiman subalgebra} or {Wiman pencil}. Assume \(n=3\), then there exists a (projectively) unique skew symmetric, special bialgebra \((W,[\;,\;])\) with non-zero and PGL(\(W\))-equivariant bimultiplication. The bialgebra \(S^2(W)\) of conics is semisimple since there exist six mutually apolar conics [cf. \textit{F. Gerbaldi}, Torino Atti 17, 358--371, 566--580 (1882; JFM 14.0537.02) and \textit{P. Gordan}, Math. Ann. 61, 453--562 (1906; JFM 37.0142.01)]. The author proves: If \(A\), \(A'\) are two conics of a set \(G\) of six mutually apolar conics, then each of the eight points of contact determined by the four bitangents of \(A\), \(A'\) belongs to a conic of \(G\setminus\{A,A'\}\). A quartic is an idempotent of \(S^4(W)\), iff it is either a double conic or a Fermat quartic or a Klein quartic; this is a reformulation of \textit{E. Ciani} [Palermo Rend. 14, 16--21 (1900; JFM 31.0113.01)]. The Salmon quartic subalgebra is semisimple since it contains six mutually apolar idempotent quartics. The author gives also a list of twelve mutually apolar idempotent quartics, but it is an open question whether \(S^4(W)\) is semisimple or not. The author proves that \(S^4(W)\) is weakly semisimple. Using Gerbaldi's conics the author constructs 15 quartic idempotent pencils \((U''_j,V''_j)\), (\(j=1,2\ldots,15\)). Each pair \((U''_j,V''_j)\) is projectively isomorphic to Wiman's quartic subalgebra. Each of the 15 pencils \(U''_j\) contains two Klein quartics, one Fermat quartic, one Capolari quartic, one Clebsch quartic, and one Bernoulli lemniscate. For the bialgebra \(S^6(W)\) the author gives examples of 2- and 4-dimensional semisimple subalgebras. Reviewer's remark: In [34] of the references the name is written wrong, correct is \textit{S. Crass} [Exp. Math. 8, No. 3, 209--240 (1999; Zbl 1060.14530)].