Related papers: Unirational Surfaces on the Noether Line

For any positive integer $r$, we construct a smooth complex projective rational surface which has at least $r$ real forms not isomorphic over $\mathbb{R}$.

Algebraically simply connected surfaces of general type with p_g=q=0 and 1\le K^2\le 4 in positive characteristic (with one exception in K^2=4) are presented by using a Q-Gorenstein smoothing of two-dimensional toric singularities, a…

We give an elementary and self-contained proof of the uniformization theorem for non-compact simply-connected Riemann surfaces.

We construct a surface over $\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p$ with $\pi_1^{\'{e}t}(X) = 1$ that is supersingular -- in the sense that $H^2_{\'{e}t}(X, \mathbb{Q}_{\ell}(1))$ is spanned by algebraic cycles -- but is not unirational. This provides a…

We prove that every del Pezzo surface of degree two over a finite field is unirational, building on the work of Manin and an extension by Salgado, Testa, and V\'arilly-Alvarado, who had proved this for all but three surfaces. Over general…

In this short note we study foliations with rationally connected leaves on surfaces. Our main result is that on surfaces there exists a polarisation such that the Harder-Narasimhan filtration of the tangent bundle with respect to this…

We provide methods to construct explicit examples of $K3$ surfaces. This leads to unirational constructions of Noether--Lefschetz divisors inside the moduli space of $K3$ surfaces of genus $g$. We implement Mukai's unirationality…

The degree of irrationality of a smooth projective variety $X$ is the minimal degree of a dominant rational map $X\dashrightarrow \mathbb{P}^{\dim X}$. We show that if an abelian surface $A$ over $\mathbb{C}$ is such that the image of the…

This article proves hypersurfaces of degree d in projective n-space are "rationally simply-connected" if $d^2 \leq n$. In a forthcoming paper, de Jong and I prove a slightly weaker result when $d^2 \leq n+1$.

We investigate the existence, and lack of unicity, of a holomorphic fibration by discs transversal to a rational curve in a complex surface.

Line fields on surfaces are a means to describe the nematic order that may pattern them. The least distorted nematic fields are called uniform, but they can only exist on surfaces with negative constant Gaussian curvature. To identify the…

We complement recent work of Gallardo, Pearlstein, Schaffler, and Zhang, showing that the stable surfaces with $K_X^2 =1$ and $\chi(\mathcal O_X) = 3$ they construct are indeed the only ones arising from imposing an exceptional unimodal…

We generalize results by Wakabayashi and Orevkov about rational cuspidal curves on the projective plane to that on $\mathbb{Q}$-homology projective planes. It turns out that the result is exactly the same as the projective plane case under…

Working over a perfect field, I classify normal del Pezzo surfaces with base number one that contain a nonrational singularity. They form a huge infinite hierarchy; contractions of ruled surfaces lie on top of it. Descending the hierarchy…

Following an idea of Ciliberto we show that double covers of projective r-space branched over an hypersurface of degree 2d are unirational provided r is sufficiently big with respect to d.

We prove that every del Pezzo surface of degree two over a finite field is unirational, building on the work of Manin and an extension by Salgado, Testa, and V\'arilly-Alvarado, who had proved this for all but three surfaces. Over general…

Algebraic surfaces of general type with $q=0$, $p_g=2$ and $K^2=1$ were described by Enriques and then studied in more detail by Horikawa. In this paper we consider a $16$-dimensional family of special Horikawa surfaces which are certain…

We study the projective normality of a minimal surface $X$ which is a ramified double covering over a rational surface $S$ with $\dim|-K_S|\ge 1$. In particular Horikawa surfaces, the minimal surfaces of general type with $K^2_X=2p_g(X)-4$,…

We show that a homology plane of general type has at worst a single cyclic quotient singular point. An example of such a surface with a singular point does exist. We also show that the automorphism group of a smooth contractible surface of…

We show that the Hurwitz scheme $\mathcal{H}_{g,d}$ parametrizing $d$-sheeted simply branched covers of the projective line by smooth curves of genus $g$, up to isomorphism, is unirational for $(g,d)=(10,8)$ and $(13,7)$. The unirationality…