An Octanomial Model for Cubic Surfaces

Abstract

We present a new normal form for cubic surfaces that is well suited for p-adic geometry, as it reveals the intrinsic del Pezzo combinatorics of the 27 trees in the tropicalization. The new normal form is a polynomial with eight terms, written in moduli from the E6 hyperplane arrangement. If such a surface is tropically smooth then its 27 tropical lines are distinct. We focus on explicit computations, both symbolic and p-adic numerical.

20 pages; clarified exposition at key points; final version