Quadratic complexes. II

Abstract

A quadratic complex Q is the set of lines in 3-dimensional projective space 3 given by a single non-trivial quadratic equation in the Plücker coordinates. The lines of the complex which pass through a fixed point of 3 are, in general, the generators of a quadric cone; this cone degenerates for the points of a sub variety K of 3. Thus one can associate with Q a fibration with base 3 - K and fibre isomorphic to 1, and ask whether this fibration is associated with an algebraic vector bundle of rank 2. When the base field is and Q is non-singular, the answer is negative; this was proved some years ago by Narasimhan and Ramanan ((8), proposition 8·1), and has the consequence that there is no universal family of stable vector bundles of rank 2 and degree 0 over a curve of genus 2.