On the Stereometric Generation of the De Jonquières Transformation

Extract

In the geometry of the plane the logical interrelations of figures may often be rendered clearer by considering the plane to be a part of space of three dimensions. Thus, by taking the plane figure as part of a more extensive configuration in space of three dimensions, the elucidation of its properties, and in particular its relation with other figures, are often facilitated. Similarly, the figures of space of three dimensions can sometimes be treated more advantageously and compendiously by considering them as parts of figures in a space of four dimensions, and so on. As a single instance we may take Segre's elegant and powerful mode of treatment of the quartic surface which possesses a nodal conic. This surface he obtains as a projection in space of four dimensions of the quartic surface which constitutes the base of a pencil of quadratic varieties. In the following paper this mode of treatment has been applied to the interesting variety of the Cremona transformation in the plane known as the De Jonquieres transformation, a transformation which possesses some intrinsic interest in view of the fundamental rôle which it plays in the theory of Cremona Transformations. By the aid of a surface in space of three dimensions, a variety in space of four dimensions, etc., simple constructions are given for the De Jonquières transformation between two planes, between two spaces of three dimensions, etc., respectively.