In algebraic geometry

Algebraic geometry

Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics which combines techniques of abstract algebra, especially commutative algebra, with the language and the problems of geometry. It occupies a central place in modern mathematics and has multiple conceptual connections with such diverse fields as complex...

, a Segre surface, named for Beniamino Segre

Beniamino Segre

Beniamino Segre was an Italian mathematician who is remembered today as a major contributor to algebraic geometry and one of the founders of combinatorial geometry....

, is an intersection of two quadrics in 4-dimensional projective space

Projective space

In mathematics a projective space is a set of elements similar to the set P of lines through the origin of a vector space V. The cases when V=R2 or V=R3 are the projective line and the projective plane, respectively....

.
They are rational surface

Rational surface

In algebraic geometry, a branch of mathematics, a rational surface is a surface birationally equivalent to the projective plane, or in other words a rational variety of dimension two...

s isomorphic to a projective plane

Projective plane

In mathematics, a projective plane is a geometric structure that extends the concept of a plane. In the ordinary Euclidean plane, two lines typically intersect in a single point, but there are some pairs of lines that do not intersect...

 blown up

Blowing up

In mathematics, blowing up or blowup is a type of geometric transformation which replaces a subspace of a given space with all the directions pointing out of that subspace. For example, the blowup of a point in a plane replaces the point with the projectivized tangent space at that point...

 in 5 points with no 3 on a line, and are del Pezzo surface

Del Pezzo surface

In mathematics, a del Pezzo surface or Fano surface is a two-dimensional Fano variety, in other words a non-singular projective algebraic surface with ample anticanonical divisor class...

s of degree 4, and have 16 rational lines. The term "Segre surface" is also occasionally used for various other surfaces, such as a quadric in 3-dimensional projective space, or the hypersurface