Related papers: A very general quartic double fourfold or fivefold…

We show that any rational cubic hypersurface of dimension at least 33 defined over a number field $K$ vanishes on a $K$-rational projective line, reducing the previous lower bound of Wooley by two. For $K=\mathbb Q$ we can reduce the bound…

A well-known conjecture asserts that smooth threefolds $X\subset\{\mathbb P}^5$ are quadratically normal with the only exception of the Palatini scroll. As a corollary of a more general statement we obtain the following result, which is…

Let $\overline{\rho}: G_{\mathbf{Q}} \rightarrow {\rm GSp}_4(\mathbf{F}_3)$ be a continuous Galois representation with cyclotomic similitude character -- or, what turns out to be equivalent, the Galois representation associated to the…

We study the group of self-equivalences of a partially postcritically finite branched cover and answer a question of Adam Epstein about contractibility of certain deformation spaces of rational maps.

Yanchevski\u{i} had asked whether conic bundle surfaces over $\mathbf{P}^1_k$ are unirational when $k$ is a finite field. We give a partial answer to his question by showing that for quasi-finite fields $k$ (e.g. finite fields) a regular…

We study the moduli spaces of rational curves on cubic hypersurfaces in characteristic $\neq2,3$. As a result, we prove that for every integer $d\geq1$ the Kontsevich moduli space of stable maps on a smooth cubic hypersurface $X$ of degree…

In this paper, we study the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of nonlinearly normal embedding of rational surfaces. Let $X$ be a rational surface and let $L \in {Pic}X$ be a very ample line bundle. For a very ample subsystem $V \subset H^0…

Let $S$ be a smooth projective surface on a smooth threefold $X$ such that $X$ has Picard rank 1 and NS$(S)$ is generated by the restriction of divisors from X. We show that if $X$ satisfies the Bogomolov-Gieseker type inequality for tilt…

Voisin constructed a series of examples concerning simply connected compact K\"ahler manifolds of even dimensions, which do not have the rational homotopy type of a complex projective manifold starting from dimension six. In this note, we…

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…

A bidouble cover is a flat $G:=\left(\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}\right)^2$-Galois cover $X \rightarrow Y$. In this situation there exist three intermediate quotients $Y_1,Y_2$ and $Y_3$ which correspond to the three subgroups…

We prove that every Hassett's Noether-Lefschetz divisor of special cubic fourfolds contains a union of three codimension-two subvarieties, parametrizing rational cubic fourfolds, in the moduli space of smooth cubic fourfolds.

Let X be a variety over a number field and let f: X --> X be an "interesting" rational self-map with a fixed point q. We make some general remarks concerning the possibility of using the behaviour of f near q to produce many rational points…

We prove rationality criteria over algebraically non-closed fields of characteristic $0$ for five out of six types of geometrically rational Fano threefolds of Picard number $1$ and geometric Picard number bigger than $1$. For the last type…

The strong cycle double cover conjecture states that for every circuit $C$ of a bridgeless cubic graph $G$, there is a cycle double cover of $G$ which contains $C$. We conjecture that there is even a 5-cycle double cover $S$ of $G$ which…

Let X be a geometrically integral projective cubic hypersurface defined over the rationals, with dimension D and singular locus of dimension at most D-4. For any \epsilon>0, we show that X contains O(B^{D+\epsilon}) rational points of…

We study rationality problems for smooth complete intersections of two quadrics. We focus on the three-dimensional case, with a view toward understanding the invariants governing the rationality of a geometrically rational threefold over a…

Let $X \subset \mathbf{P}_{\mathbf{Q}}^{n-1}$ be a cubic hypersurface cut out by the vanishing of a non-degenerate rational cubic form in $n$ variables. Let $N(X,B)$ denote the number of rational points on $X$ of height at most $B$. In this…

We prove that the quartic threefolds defined by $$ \sum_{i=0}^{5}x_i=\sum_{i=0}^{5}x_i^4-t\left(\sum_{i=0}^{5}x_i^2\right)^2=0 $$ in $\mathbb{P}^5$ are rational for $t=\frac{1}{6}$ and $t=\frac{7}{10}$.

We give the first evidence for a conjecture that a general, index-one, Fano hypersurface is not unirational: (i) a general point of the hypersurface is contained in no rational surface ruled, roughly, by low-degree rational curves, and (ii)…