Monodromy of the family of cubic surfaces branching over smooth cubic curves

Abstract

Consider the family of smooth cubic surfaces which can be realized as threefold-branched covers of ${\mathbb{P}}^2$, with branch locus equal to a smooth cubic curve. This family is parametrized by the space ${\mathcal{U}}_3$ of smooth cubic curves in ${\mathbb{P}}^2$ and each surface is equipped with a $\mathbb{Z}/3\mathbb{Z}$ deck group action. We compute the image of the monodromy map $\rho$ induced by the action of ${\pi }_1\left({\mathcal{U}}_3\right)$ on the $27$ lines contained on the cubic surfaces of this family. Due to a classical result, this image is contained in the Weyl group $W\left(E_6\right)$. Our main result is that $\rho$ is surjective onto the centralizer of the image a of a generator of the deck group. Our proof is mainly computational, and relies on the relation between the $9$ inflection points in a cubic curve and the $27$ lines contained in the cubic surface branching over it.

arXiv commentFinal version, to appear in Annales de l'Institut Fourier. Link to computation repository included. 17 pages, 6 figures