Twistor interpretation of slice regular functions

TL;DR

This paper extends the twistor interpretation of slice regular functions on quaternions, removing previous domain restrictions, classifies algebraic surfaces containing their lifts, and explores the twistor transform's geometric properties.

Contribution

It generalizes the twistor lift of slice regular functions without domain restrictions and classifies algebraic surfaces in projective space containing these lifts.

Findings

The twistor lift can be defined without the domain intersecting the real axis.

Surfaces containing the lift are ruled by lines.

Explicit descriptions of the twistor transform for certain functions.

Abstract

Given a slice regular function $f:\Omega\subset\mathbb{H}\to \mathbb{H}$, with $\Omega\cap\mathbb{R}\neq \emptyset$, it is possible to lift it to a surface in the twistor space $\mathbb{CP}^{3}$ of $\mathbb{S}^4\simeq \mathbb{H}\cup \{\infty\}$ (see~\cite{gensalsto}). In this paper we show that the same result is true if one removes the hypothesis $\Omega\cap\mathbb{R}\neq \emptyset$ on the domain of the function $f$. Moreover we find that if a surface $\mathcal{S}\subset\mathbb{CP}^{3}$ contains the image of the twistor lift of a slice regular function, then $\mathcal{S}$ has to be ruled by lines. Starting from these results we find all the projective classes of algebraic surfaces up to degree 3 in $\mathbb{CP}^{3}$ that contain the lift of a slice regular function. In addition we extend and further explore the so-called twistor transform, that is a curve in $\mathbb{G}r_2(\mathbb{C}^4)$ which, given a slice regular function, returns the arrangement of lines whose lift carries on. With the explicit expression of the twistor lift and of the twistor transform of a slice regular function we exhibit the set of slice regular functions whose twistor transform describes a rational line inside $\mathbb{G}r_2(\mathbb{C}^4)$, showing the role of slice regular functions not defined on $\mathbb{R}$. At the end we study the twistor lift of a particular slice regular function not defined over the reals. This example shows the effectiveness of our approach and opens some questions.