On cubic hypersurfaces with vanishing hessian

Abstract

If $X = V(f) \subset \mathbb P^N$ is a reduced complex hypersurface, the hessian of $f$ (or by abusing the terminology the hessian of $X$) is the determinant of the matrix of the second derivatives of the form $f$, that is the determinant of the hessian matrix of $f$. Hypersurfaces with vanishing hessian were studied systematically for the first time in the fundamental paper [GN], where Gordan and M. Noether analyze Hesse's claims in [Hesse1, Hesse2] according to which these hypersurfaces are necessarily cones. Of course cones have vanishing hessian. Clearly the claim is true if deg(X)=2 so that the first relevant case for the problem is that of cubic hypersurfaces. One immediately sees that $V(x_0x_3^2 + x_1x_3x_4 + x_2x_4^2)\subset \mathbb P^4$ is a cubic hypersurface with vanishing hessian but not a cone (for example one could check that the first partial derivatives of the equation are linearly independent). As firstly pointed out in [GN], the claim is true for $N\leq 3$ and in general false for every $N\geq 4$. Here we prove that for $N\leq 6$ an irreducible cubic hypersurface with vanishing hessian in $\mathbb P^N$ is either a cone or a scroll in linear spaces tangent to the dual of the image of the polar map of the hypersurface. We also provide canonical forms and a projective characterization of {\it Special Perazzo Cubic Hypersurfaces}, which, a posteriori, exhaust the class of cubic hypersurfaces with vanishing hessian, not cones, for $N\leq 6$. Finally we show by pertinent examples the technical difficulties arising for $N\geq 7$.