TITLE: Branch locus of a 6:1 cover of the grassmannian G(1,3)
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: Given a general quartic surface $S$ in $\mathbf{P}^3$, there is a natural 6:1 surjective map
$\phi: Hilb^2(S) \to G(1,3)$ sending $\{P,Q\}$ to the line through them in $\mathbf{P}^3$.
Can you describe the branch locus of $\phi$ in terms of Schubert classes?

REPLY [12 votes]: Since you are interested in a divisor, you only need to know its degree, that is its intersection with a line. A generic line on $Gr(1,3)$ is given by the set of all lines contained in a plane $P$ and passing through a point $Q$. So, you want to know how many tangents to $S$ pass through $Q$ and lie in $P$. 
Consider the intersection $S_P = S \cap P$.
Since $P$ is generic $S_P$ is a quartic curve. The number of tangents passing through generic point is nothing but the degree of the projectively dual curve which is known to be $d(d-1) = 4\cdot 3 = 12$. 
So, the answer is that the branch locus is given by $12\sigma_1$ (honestly, I don't remember whether the standard notation for the Schubert class of codimension 1 is $\sigma_1$ or not).