English

An arithmetic count of the lines meeting four lines in P^3

Algebraic Geometry 2022-10-17 v3 Algebraic Topology K-Theory and Homology

Abstract

We enrich the classical count that there are two complex lines meeting four lines in space to an equality of isomorphism classes of bilinear forms. For any field kk, this enrichment counts the number of lines meeting four lines defined over kk in Pk3\mathbb{P}^3_k, with such lines weighted by their fields of definition together with information about the cross-ratio of the intersection points and spanning planes. We generalize this example to an infinite family of such enrichments, obtained using an Euler number in A1\mathbb{A}^1-homotopy theory. The classical counts are recovered by taking the rank of the bilinear forms. In the appendix, the condition that the four lines each be defined over kk is relaxed to the condition that the set of four lines being defined over kk.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1810.03503,
  title  = {An arithmetic count of the lines meeting four lines in P^3},
  author = {Padmavathi Srinivasan and Kirsten Wickelgren},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.03503},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in Transactions of the AMS