Rational normal scroll ($\mathbb{F}(a_1,\dots ,a_n)={\mathbb{P}}_{{\mathbb{P}}^1}({⨁}_i\mathcal{O}(a_i))$)

For this smooth projective bundle, put $L={\pi }^{\ast }{\mathcal{O}}_{{\mathbb{P}}^1}(1)$ and $M={\mathcal{O}}_{\mathbb{F}}(1)$, using projectivization by quotients. If every $a_i>0$, the complete system $|M|$ embeds it as a rational normal scroll. If every $a_i\ge 0$, the same system defines a scroll image which may be singular. Allowing arbitrary integers gives an abstract scroll; a common twist makes an embedding available. Its intersection numbers are $L^2=0$, $L{M}^{n-1}=1$, $M^n={\sum }_i{a}_i$, and its canonical divisor is $-nM+({\sum }_i{a}_i-2)L$.

The divisor class of a fibre of the ruling of a rational normal scroll has square zero. Its complete pencil recovers the projection to ${\mathbb{P}}^1$, and its intersection with $M^{n-1}$ is one.

Two rank-$n$ abstract rational normal scrolls are isomorphic exactly when their splitting degrees agree as multisets after a common integer shift. For $n\ge 3$, the primitive nef class $L$ of the ruling is intrinsically identified by $L^2=0$: restriction to a projective fibre forces every other divisor class with square zero to have zero coefficient of $M$. An isomorphism therefore preserves the ruling, and its effect on $M$ is a twist by $cL$. Pushforward gives an isomorphism of the defining bundles up to this twist; uniqueness in the Birkhoff–Grothendieck theorem recovers their splitting degrees. For surfaces the unique nef square-zero ray identifies the ruling except on ${\mathbb{P}}^1\times {\mathbb{P}}^1$, where exchanging the two rulings changes no normalized splitting type.