On singular Lüroth quartics (Q763658)

In a projective plane, the double points of a configuration of \(5\) lines, three by three independent, is called a \textit{pentalateral}. A general quartic curve contains no pentalaterals. \textit{Lüroth quartics} are quartic plane curves which contain a pentalateral. Such curves are parametrized by a hypersurface \(L\) of \(\mathbb P^{14}\): the {Lüroth hypersurface}. Lüroth quartics are connected with the theory of vector bundles on \(\mathbb P^2\), nets of quadrics and some Cremona transformation of \(\mathbb P^3\). This justifies the study of the hypersurface \(L\), many properties of which are well known. The authors are concerned with the locus of \textit{singular} Lüroth quartics, i. e., the intersection \(X\) of \(L\) with the discriminant locus \(D\). Properties of \(X\) were determined by \textit{J. Le Poitier} and \textit{A. Tikhomirov} [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 34, No. 4, 573--629 (2001; Zbl 0998.14007)], and it is known that \(X\) splits in two components \(L_1\) and \(L_2\), which are shown to depend on involutory and non involutory points of a Cremona transormation. The authors extend our knowledge on the components of \(X\). Namely, they compute the degree of \(L_1\) and show that \(L\cap D\) is non reduced along \(L_2\); moreover \((L_2)_{\mathrm{red}}\) is not complete intersection (this explains why an explicit form for \(L\) is hard to find and indeed yet unknown). The authors also determine the class of the divisor, in the moduli space of stable curves of genus \(3\), which parametrizes Lüroth quartics.