Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T16:54:02.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cubic surfaces whose points all lie on their 27 lines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2013

J.W.P. Hirschfeld
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Get access

Summary

Let F be a cubic surface with 27 lines in PG(3,q). Theorem 30.1 in Manin [2] states that, if q > 34, then there exists a point of F on none of its lines. There is, however, sufficient information in [1] to work out the precise list of cubic surfaces with no such point.

When the cubic curves of PG(2,q) are mapped by their coefficients to the points of PG(9,q), then the set of triple lines is mapped to the Del Vezzo surface v29. Successive projections, always from points of themselves, are also called Del Pezzo surfaces by Manin. A cubic surface with 27 lines in PG(3,q) is in this sense a Del Pezzo surface of order three, whose lines are its exceptional curves. In what follows, F is always such a surface. The 27 lines of F lie by threes in 45 tritangent planes, in e of which the three lines are concurrent at an Eckardt point. All the subsequent lemmas come from [1].

LEMMA 1: F exists over all fields except GF(q) with q = 2, 3 or 5.

LEMMA 2: The number of points on F is q2 + 7q + 1.

LEMMA 3: The number of points on the 27 lines of F is 27(q - 4) + e.

LEMMA 4: For q odd, e ≥ 18; for q even, e ≥ 45.

Type
Chapter
Information
Finite Geometries and Designs
Proceedings of the Second Isle of Thorns Conference 1980
, pp. 169 - 171
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×