Related papers: Cubic fourfolds, K3 surfaces, and rationality ques…
Let $X\subset \P^5$ be a smooth cubic fourfold. A well known conjecture asserts that $X$ is rational if and only if there an Hodge theoretically associated K3 surface $S$. The surface $S$ can be associated to $X$ in two other different…
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,…
Following the work of Katzarkov--Kontsevich--Pantev--Yu concerning the irrationality of the very general complex cubic fourfold, we prove the following: for every rational smooth complex cubic fourfold, the primitive cohomology is…
We study the rationality of some geometrically rational three-dimensional conic and quadric surface bundles, defined over the reals and more general real closed fields, for which the real locus is connected and the intermediate Jacobian…
We study the geometry, Hodge theory and derived category of cubic fourfolds containing several planes and their associated twisted K3 surfaces. We focus on the case of two planes intersecting along a line.
We review recent developments in the arithmetic of K3 surfaces. Our focus lies on aspects of modularity, Picard number and rational points. Throughout we emphasise connections to geometry.
Smooth cubic fourfolds are linked to K3 surfaces via their Hodge structures, due to work of Hassett, and via Kuznetsov's K3 category A. The relation between these two viewpoints has recently been elucidated by Addington and Thomas. In this…
We show several examples of integrable systems related to special K3 and rational surfaces (e.g., an elliptic K3 surface, a K3 surface given by a double covering of the projective plane, a rational elliptic surface, etc.). The construction,…
There are three types of involutions on a cubic fourfold; two of anti-symplectic type, and one symplectic. Here we show that cubics with involutions exhibit the full range of behaviour in relation to rationality conjectures. Namely, we show…
We construct new examples of rational Gushel-Mukai fourfolds, giving more evidence for the analog of the Kuznetsov Conjecture for cubic fourfolds: a Gushel--Mukai fourfold is rational if and only if it admits an associated K3 surface.
Cubic fourfolds behave in many ways like K3 surfaces. Certain cubics - conjecturally, the ones that are rational - have specific K3s associated to them geometrically. Hassett has studied cubics with K3s associated to them at the level of…
We present some applications of the Macaulay2 software package SpecialFanoFourfolds, a package for working with Hodge-special cubic fourfolds and Hodge-special Gushel--Mukai fourfolds. In particular, we show how to construct new examples of…
We present some families of cubic hypersurfaces in $\mathbb P^5 (\mathbb C)$ containing a plane whose associated quadric bundle does not have a rational section.
We study rationality properties of real singular cubic threefolds.
These are notes of lectures given at the school `Birational Geometry of Hypersurfaces' in Gargnano in March 2018. The main goal was to discuss the Hodge structures that come naturally associated with a cubic fourfold. The emphasis is on the…
We survey some results on real rational surfaces focused on their topology and their birational geometry.
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…
In this survey we discuss the problem of the existence of rational curves on complex surfaces, both in the K\"ahler and non-K\"ahler setup. We systematically go through the Enriques--Kodaira classification of complex surfaces to highlight…
We discover suprising connections between three seemingly different problems: finding right triangles with rational sides in a non-Euclidean geometry, finding three integers such that the difference of the squares of any two is a square,…
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…