Related papers: A very general quartic double fourfold is not stab…

We construct examples of nodal quartic double solids that admit uniformly rational, and so elliptic in Gromov' sense, small algebraic resolutions.

It is proved that a smooth rational surface in projective four-space, which is ruled by cubics or quartics has degree at most 12. It is also proved that a smooth rational surface in projective four-space which is the image of Fn by a linear…

We prove analogues of several well-known results concerning rational morphisms between quadrics for the class of so-called quasilinear $p$-hypersurfaces. These hypersurfaces are nowhere smooth over the base field, so many of the geometric…

We show that rationality does not specialize in flat projective families of complex fourfolds with terminal singularities. This answers a question of Totaro, who established the analogous result in all dimensions greater than 4.

A variety is unirational if it is dominated by a rational variety. A variety is rationally connected if two general points can be joined by a rational curve. This paper aims to show that the two notions can cooperate and, building on…

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…

A very general hypersurface of dimension $n$ and degree $d$ in complex projective space is rational if $d \leq 2$, but is expected to be irrational for all $n, d \geq 3$. Hypersurfaces in weighted projective space with degree small relative…

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 show that the very general Verra fourfold is irrational, using the Hodge atom framework of Katzarkov--Kontsevich--Pantev--Yu. Two novel points are: a refined analysis of Hodge atoms, based on the involution on the cohomology of $X$, and…

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…

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…

We complete the study of rationality problem for hypersurfaces $X_t\subset \mathbb{P}^4$ of degree $4$ invariant under the action of the symmetric group $S_6$.

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…

We show that over an algebraically closed field of characteristic not equal to 2, homological projective duality for smooth quadric hypersurfaces and for double covers of projective spaces branched over smooth quadric hypersurfaces is a…

In recent years, there has been a development in approaching rationality problems through motivic methods (cf. [Kontsevich--Tschinkel'19], [Nicaise--Shinder'19], [Nicaise--Ottem'21]). This method requires the explicit construction of…

We develop a theory of Prym varieties and cubic threefolds over fields of characteristic $2$. As an application, we prove that smooth cubic threefolds are non-rational over an arbitrary field and solve a conjecture of Deligne regarding…

Let X be a non-singular projective hypersurface of degree 4, which is defined over the rational numbers. Assume that X has dimension 39 or more, and that X contains a real point and p-adic points for every prime p. Then X is shown to…

We study rationality properties of real singular cubic threefolds.

We construct examples to show that having nef cotangent bundle is not preserved under finite ramified covers. Our examples also show that a projective manifold with Stein universal cover may not have nef cotangent bundle, disproving a…

Let a,b,c,d be nonzero rational numbers whose product is a square, and let V be the diagonal quartic surface in PP^3 defined by ax^4+by^4+cz^4+dw^4=0. We prove that if V contains a rational point that does not lie on any of the 48 lines on…