Paper detail

Representations of Clifford algebras of ternary quartic forms

Given a nondegenerate ternary form $f=f(x_1,x_2,x_3)$ of degree 4 over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, we use the geometry of K3 surfaces to construct a certain positive-dimensional family of irreducible representations of the generalized Clifford algebra associated to $f.$ From this we obtain the existence of linear Pfaffian representations of the quartic surface $X_f=\{w^4=f(x_1,x_2,x_3)\},$ as well as information on the Brill-Noether theory of a general smooth curve in the linear system $|\mathcal{O}_{X_f}(3)|.$