Most binary forms come from a pencil of quadrics

Abstract

A pair of symmetric bilinear forms A and B determine a binary form $f(x,y) = disc(Ax-By)$. We prove that the question of whether a given binary form can be written in this way as a discriminant form generically satisfies a local-global principle and deduce from this that most binary forms over $\mathbf{Q}$ are discriminant forms. This is related to the arithmetic of the hyperelliptic curve $z^2 = f(x,y)$. Analogous results for non-hyperelliptic curves are also given.