Twistor interpretation of slice regular functions

Given a slice regular function f:Ω⊂H→H, with Ω∩R≠∅, it is possible to lift it to surfaces in the twistor space CP3 of S4≃H∪{∞} (see Gentili et al., 2014). In this paper we show that the same result is true if one removes the hypothesis Ω∩R≠∅ on the domain of the function f. Moreover we find that if a surface S⊂CP3 contains the image of the twistor lift of a slice regular function, then 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 CP3 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 Gr2(C4) 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 Gr2(C4), showing the role of slice regular functions not defined on 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.