Conic bundles in projective fourspace

Abstract

P. Ellia and G.Sacchiero have shown that if $S$ is a smooth surface in $\Pn 4$ which is ruled in conics, then $S$ has degree 4 or 5. In this paper we give a proof of this result combining the ideas of Ellia and Sacchiero as they are used in the paper of the second author on plane curve fibrations and the recent work of G. Fløystad and the first author bounding the degree of smooth surfaces in $\Pn 4$ not of general type.