The Waring loci of ternary quartics

Abstract

Let F denote a homogeneous degree 4 polynomial in 3 variables, and let s be an integer between 1 and 5. We would like to know if F can be written as a sum of fourth powers of s linear forms (or a degeneration). We determine necessary and sufficient conditions for this to be possible. These conditions are expressed as the vanishing of certain concomitants of F for the natural action of SL_3.