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Let X be a complex, rationally connected, projective manifold. We show that X admits a modification X' that contains a quasi-line, ie a smooth rational curve whose normal bundle is a direct sum of copies of O_{P^1}(1). For manifolds…
If a smooth, geometrically rational surface over a finite field is not rational over that field, then over some finite extension of that field the Brauer group of the surface is nonzero. In particular such a surface is not stably rational.…
Using Voisin's method we prove that a very general hypersurface of degree at least 4 in complex projective space of dimension 6, 7, 8 or 9 is not stably rational and so, in particular, not rational. We obtain the same conclusion for the…
Let $X$ be a cubic fourfold in $P^5_{C}$. We prove that, assuming the Hodge conjecture for the product $S \times S$, where $S$ is a complex surface, and the finite dimensionality of the Chow motive $h(S)$, there are at most a countable…
Let $(X,D)$ be a pair where $X$ is a projective variety. We study in detail how the behavior of rational curves on $X$ as well as the positivity of $-(K_X+D)$ and $D$ influence the behavior of rational curves on $D$. In particular we give…
A well known conjecture asserts that a cubic fourfold X is rational if it has a cohomologically associated K3 surface. G.Ouchi proved that if X admits a finite group G of symplectic automorphisms, whose order is different from 2, then X has…
We classify all complex surfaces with quotient singularities that do not contain any smooth rational curves, under the assumption that the canonical divisor of the surface is not pseudo-effective. As a corollary we show that if $X$ is a log…
We consider diagonal cubic surfaces defined by an equation of the form ax^3+by^3+cz^3+dt^3 = 0. Numerically, one can find all rational points of height < B for B in the range of up to 100 000, thanks to a program due to D. J. Bernstein. On…
For every $d\geq 2$, we construct a subset $D\subseteq \{1,2,\dots,n\}^d$ of size $n-o(n)$ such that every affine hyperplane of $\mathbb{R}^d$ intersects $D$ in at most $d$ points, and every hypersphere of $\mathbb{R}^n$ intersects $D$ in…
Cubic fourfolds of discriminant 24 contain special codimension-two algebraic cycles of degree 6 and self-intersection 20. Such cycles may be represented by singular scrolls or del Pezzo surfaces. A discriminant 24 cubic fourfold gives rise…
Let $R$ be the field of real Puiseux series. It is a real closed field. We construct the first examples of smooth intersections of two quadrics in $\mathbb{P}_R^5$ and smooth cubic hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{P}_R^4$ which are not stably…
Motivated by the question of rationality of cubic fourfolds, we show that a cubic X has an associated K3 surface in the sense of Hassett if and only if the variety F of lines on X is birational to a moduli space of sheaves on a K3 surface,…
We provide an asymptotic estimate for the number of rational points of bounded height on a non-singular conic over the rationals. The estimate is uniform in the coefficients of the underlying quadratic form.
We classify rational surfaces for which the image of the automorphisms group in the group of linear transformations of the Picard group is the largest possible. This answers a question raised by Arthur Coble in 1928, and can be rephrased in…
We prove a lower bound that agrees with Manin's prediction for the number of rational points of bounded height on the Fermat cubic surface. As an application we provide a simple counterexample to Manin's conjecture over the rationals.
For any affine hypersurface defined by a complete symmetric polynomial in $k\geq 3$ variables of degree $m$ over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_{q}$ of $q$ elements, a special case of our theorem says that this hypersurface has at least…
We give an elementary proof of a recent result by Fishman, Kleinbock, Merrill and Simmons about rational points on quadratic surfaces.
In this paper we determine the group of rational automorphisms of binary cubic and quartic forms with integer coefficients and non-zero discriminant in terms of certain quadratic covariants of cubic and quartic forms. This allows one to…
Recent results of Hassett, Kuznetsov and others pointed out countably many divisors $C_d$ in the open subset of $\mathbb{P}^{55}=\mathbb{P}(H^0(\mathcal{O}_{\mathbb{P}^5}(3)))$ parametrizing all cubic 4-folds and lead to the conjecture that…
Let $X$ be a hypersurface in $\mathbb{P}^N$ with $N\geq 3$ defined over a finite field. The main result of this note is the classification, up to projective equivalence, of hypersurfaces $X$ as above without a linear component when the…