Freeness versus maximal degree of the singular subscheme for surfaces in P^3

From MaRDI portal
Publication:303991



Abstract: We show that a free surface in P3 is characterized by the maximality of the degree of its singular subscheme, in the presence of an additional tameness condition. This is similar to the characterization of free plane curves by the maximality of their global Tjurina number given by A. A. du Plessis and C.T.C. Wall. Simple characterizations of the nearly free tame surfaces are also given.


Let \(D \subset \mathbb P^3\) be a reduced surface of degree \(d\) defined by a homogeneous polynomial \(f \in S = \mathbb C[x,y,z,w]_d\). Let \(J_f\) be the Jacobian ideal of \(f\), i.e., the ideal generated by the first order partial derivatives \(f_x, f_y,f_z,f_w\) of \(f\). The Milnor (or Jacobian) algebra is defined by \(M(f) = S/J_f\). Let \(\Sigma\) be the singular subscheme of \(D\), i.e. the scheme defined by \(J_f\). For their purposes, the authors assume without loss of generality that \(\dim \Sigma = 1\). The minimal degree of a Jacobian relation for \(f\), denoted \(\mathrm{mdr}(f)\), is defined to be the smallest integer \(q \geq 0\) such that there is a nontrivial relation \(a_1 f_x + a_2 f_y + a_3 f_z + a_4 f_w = 0,\) where the \(a_j\) are homogeneous polynomials of degree \(q\). The authors assume that \(\mathrm{mdf}(f) > 0\), i.e. that \(D\) is not a cone over a curve in \(\mathbb P^{2}\). \(D\) is said to be \textit{free} if \(M(f)\) is Cohen-Macaulay of dimension 2. \(D\) is \textit{almost free} if \(J_f\) is saturated but not Cohen-Macaulay and \(\dim M(f) = 2\). The main result is to show that a free surface in \(\mathbb P^3\) is characterized by the maximality of the degree of \(\Sigma\) (assuming an additional tameness condition). They also give characterizations of the nearly free tame surfaces. These results are extensions to \(\mathbb P^3\) of a result of \textit{A. A. Du Plessis} and \textit{C. T. C. Wall} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 126, No. 2, 259--266 (1999; Zbl 0926.14012)] for the \(\mathbb P^2\) case.











This page was built for publication: Freeness versus maximal degree of the singular subscheme for surfaces in \(\mathbb {P}^3\)

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q303991)