Related papers: Smooth Rational Curves on Singular Rational Surfac…

In 1974, D. Coray showed that on a smooth cubic surface with a closed point of degree prime to 3 there exists such a point of degree 1, 4 or 10. We first show how a combination of generisation, specialisation, Bertini theorems and large…

We show that the motivic zeta functions of smooth, geometrically connected curves with no rational points are rational functions. This was previously known only for curves whose smooth projective models have a rational point on each…

We study the family of rational curves on arbitrary smooth hypersurfaces of low degree using tools from analytic number theory.

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)…

We study deformations of rational curves and their singularities in positive characteristic. We use this to prove that if a smooth and proper surface in positive characteristic $p$ is dominated by a family of rational curves such that one…

We prove the "strong form" of the Clemens conjecture in degree 10. Namely, on a general quintic threefold F in P^4, there are only finitely many smooth rational curves of degree 10, and each curve is embedded in F with normal bundle…

We study surjective (not necessarily regular) rational endomorphisms $f$ of smooth del Pezzo surfaces $X$. We prove that under certain natural non\,-\,degeneracy condition $f$ can have degree bigger than $1$ only when $(-K_X^2) > 5$. Some…

If $X$ is a projective, geometrically irreducible variety defined over a finite field $\F_q$, such that it is smooth and its Chow group of 0-cycles fulfills base change, i.e. $CH_0(X\times_{\F_q}\bar{\F_q(X)})=\Q$, then the second author's…

This paper is concerned with projective rationally connected surfaces $X$ with canonical singularities and having non-zero pluri-forms, i.e. $(\Omega_X^1)^{[\otimes m]}$ has non-zero global sections for some m > 0, where…

Segre proved that a smooth cubic surface over Q is unirational iff it has a rational point. We prove that the result also holds for cubic hypersurfaces over any field, including finite fields.

Given a morphism between smooth projective varieties $f: W \to X$, we study whether $f$-relatively free rational curves imply the existence of $f$-relatively very free rational curves. The answer is shown to be positive when the fibers of…

This paper investigates the geometry of a smooth canonically polarized surface $X$ defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p>0$ in the case when the automorphism scheme of $X$ is not smooth. This is a situation that…

We show that a real rational (over $\C$) surfaces are quasi-simple, i.e., that such a surface is determined up to deformation in the class of real surfaces by the topological type of its real structure.

We give a simple proof of the statement that every rational curve in the primitive class of a general K3 surface is nodal.

Let S be a Dedekind scheme with fraction field K. We study the following problem: given a Del Pezzo surface X, defined over K, construct a distinguished integral model of X, defined over all of S. We provide a satisfactory answer if S is a…

Let $C$ be an irreducible projective plane curve in the complex projective space ${\mathbb{P}}^2$. The classification of such curves, up to the action of the automorphism group $PGL(3,{\mathbb{C}})$ on ${\mathbb{P}}^2$, is a very difficult…

For each del Pezzo surface $S$ with du Val singularities, we determine whether it admits a $(-K_S)$-polar cylinder or not. If it allows one, then we present an effective $\mathbb{Q}$-divisor $D$ that is $\mathbb{Q}$-linearly equivalent to…

Koll\'ar's conjecture states that a complex projective surface $S$ with quotient singularities and with $H^2(S,\bbQ)\cong \bbQ$ should be rational if its smooth part $S^0$ is simply connected. We confirm the conjecture under the additional…

Let $X$ be a smooth projective algebraic variety over a number field $k$ and $P$ in $X(k)$. In 2007, the second author conjectured that, in a precise sense, if rational points on $X$ are dense enough, then the best rational approximations…

In this article, we prove that any complex smooth rational surface $X$ which has no automorphism of positive entropy has a finite number of real forms (this is especially the case if $X$ cannot be obtained by blowing up $\mathbb…