More precisely, is a Severi variety if and only if , where is the Jordan algebra of Hermitian (3 × 3)-matrices over a composition algebra, and corresponds to the cone of Hermitian matrices of rank (in that case corresponds to the cone of Hermitian matrices with vanishing determinant; cf. Theorem 4.8). In other words, is a Severi variety if and only if is the “Veronese surface” over one of the composition algebras over the field (Theorem 4.9).
2006, Alberto Elduque, Chapter 12: A new look at Freudenthal's Magic Square, Lev Sabinin, Larissa Sbitneva, Ivan Shestakov (editors, Non-Associative Algebra and Its Applications, Taylor & Francis Group (Chapman & Hall/CRC), page 150,