The quartic has four equal roots, that is to say, is a perfect fourth power, when the Hessian vanishes identically; and conversely.
The expression (ab) 4 properly appertains to a quartic; for a quadratic it may also be written (ab) 2 (cd) 2, and would denote the square of the discriminant to a factor pres.
For the quartic (ab) 4 = (aib2-a2b,) alb2 -4a7a2blb2+64a2 bib2 - 4a 1 a 2 b 7 b 2 + a a b i = a,a 4 - 4ca,a 3 +6a2 - 4a3a3+ aoa4 = 2(a 0 a 4 - 4a1a3 +e3a2), one of the well-known invariants of the quartic.
The vanishing of the invariants i and j is the necessary and sufficient condition to ensure the quartic having three equal roots.
On the one hand, assuming the quartic to have the form 4xix 2, we find i=j=o, and on the other hand, assuming i=j=o, we find that the quartic must have the form a o xi+4a 1 xix 2 which proves the proposition.
