Quartic \(K3\) surfaces without nontrivial automorphisms (Q867374)

Let \(k\) be a field of arbitrary characteristic, let \(\overline{k}\) be a fixed algebraic closure of \(k\). Let \(X\) be a hypersurface of degree \(d\) in \({\mathbb P}^{n+1}\). Let \(\overline{X}:=X \times_k \overline{k}\) be the hypersurface considered over \(\overline{k}\). The starting point of the paper under review is a corollary of a theorem proved by \textit{B. Poonen} [Finite Fields Appl. 11, No. 2, 230--268 (2005; Zbl 1076.14053)]: For any field \(k\) and integers \(n\geq 1, d\geq 3\) with \((n,d)\not \in \{(1,3),(2,4)\}\) there exists a smooth hypersurface \(X\subset {\mathbb P}^{n+1}\) such that \(\Aut(\overline{X})=\{1\}\). If \((n,d)=(1,3)\) then it is known that \(\Aut(\overline{X})\supset X\), hence this group is non-trivial. The author studies the missing case \((n,d)=(2,4)\). The main theorem of the paper under review reads: Let \(k\) be any field of characteristic at most 19. Then there exists a smooth quartic surface \(X\subset {\mathbb P}^3\) with \(\Aut(X)={1}\). The construction of these surfaces is as follows: First the author describes conditions on \(X\) such that all automorphisms of \(X\) extend to \({\mathbb P}^3\). E.g., if the group NS\((X)\) of divisors on \(X\) modulo linear equivalence is generated by the hyperplane section and a line then this is the case. The author then poses for all positive characteristics \(p\leq 19\) an explicit quartic surface \(X_{p}\) containing a line. He uses the knowledge of the zeta-function of \(X_{p}\) to prove that NS\((X)\) is generated by the hyperplane section and a line. Furthermore, he shows that there is no non-trivial automorphim of \({\mathbb P}^4\) that fixes \(X\). This implies that \(\Aut(X_p)=1\). A lift of any of these surfaces to characteristic 0 gives the desired example in characteristic 0. To determine the zeta-function an algorithm of Kedlaya is used. This algorithm has exponential complexity in the characteristic of the field, and works only in small characteristics. A second result in the paper concerns a hypersurface \(X\) defined over \(\mathbb Q\) such that \(X(\mathbb Q)\) is Zariski dense in \(X\).