Related papers: Unirational threefolds with no universal codimensi…

In this paper, we prove that a very general cubic threefold does not admit a universal codimension-two cycle and hence is stably irrational.

We study the existence of a Chow-theoretic decomposition of the diagonal of a smooth cubic hypersurface, or equivalently, the universal triviality of its ${\rm CH}_0$-group. We prove that for odd dimensional cubic hypersurfaces or for cubic…

We consider the connections among algebraic cycles, abelian varieties, and stable rationality of smooth projective varieties in positive characteristic. Recently Voisin constructed two new obstructions to stable rationality for rationally…

We study the stable rationality problem for quadric and cubic surface bundles over surfaces from the point of view of the degeneration method for the Chow group of 0-cycles. Our main result is that a very general hypersurface X of bidegree…

We prove that a very general double cover of the projective four-space, ramified in a quartic threefold, is not stably rational.

We use the universal generation of algebraic cycles to relate (stable) rationality to the integral Hodge conjecture. We show that the Chow group of 1-cycles on a cubic hypersurface is universally generated by lines. Applications are mainly…

We show the cohomological monodromy for the universal family of smooth cubic threefolds does not factor through the genus five mapping class group. This gives a geometric group theory perspective on the well-known irrationality of cubic…

We show that a very general (3,3) complete intersection in $\mathbb{P}^7$ over an algebraically closed uncountable field of characteristic different from 2 admits no decomposition of the diagonal, in particular it is not retract rational.…

Applying an idea of C. Voisin, we prove that a double cover of P^4 or P^5 branched along a very general quartic hypersurface is not stably rational.

This is a survey of recent examples of varieties that are not stably rational. We review the specialization method based on properties of the Chow group of zero-cycles used in these examples and explain the point of view of unramified…

In this text we prove that if an abelian variety $A$ admits an embedding into the Jacobian of a smooth projective curve $C$, and if we consider $\Theta_A$ to be the divisor $\Theta_C\cap A$, where $\Theta_C$ denotes the theta divisor of…

We introduce a new obstruction to the existence of a universal $0$-cycle on a smooth projective complex variety. As an application, we construct a smooth projective complex surface whose Chow group of $0$-cycles is representable but which…

Inspir\'es par un argument de C. Voisin, nous montrons l'existence d'hypersurfaces quartiques lisses dans ${\bf P}^4_{\mathbb C}$ qui ne sont pas stablement rationnelles, plus pr\'ecis\'ement dont le groupe de Chow de degr\'e z\'ero n'est…

It is proved that the non-rationality of a generic cubic fourfold follows from a conjecture on the non-decomposability in the direct sum of non-trivial polarized Hodge structures of the polarized Hodge structure on transcendental cycles on…

We prove that a double covering of P^3 branched along a very general sextic surface is not stably rational.

We show that a wide class of hypersurfaces in all dimensions are not stably rational. Namely, for all d at least about 2n/3, a very general complex hypersurface of degree d in P^{n+1} is not stably rational. The statement generalizes…

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…

We show that a very general quartic hypersurface in $\mathbb P^6 $ over a field of characteristic different from 2 does not admit a decomposition of the diagonal, hence is not retract rational. This generalizes a result of Nicaise--Ottem,…

We adapt for algebraically closed fields $k$ of characteristic greater than $2$ two results of Voisin, on the decomposition of the diagonal of a smooth cubic hypersurface $X$ of dimension $3$ over $\mathbb C$, namely: the equivalence…

We study a double solid X branched along a nodal sextic surface in a projective space and the 2-torsion subgroup in the third integer cohomology group of a resolution of singularities of X. This group can be considered as an obstruction to…