Related papers: Sextic double solids with Artin-Mumford obstructio…

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…

We prove a general specialization theorem which implies stable irrationality for a wide class of quadric surface bundles over rational surfaces. As an application, we solve with the exception of two cases, the stable rationality problem for…

We describe smooth rational projective algebraic surfaces over an algebraically closed field of characteristic different from 2 which contain $n \ge \b_2-2$ disjoint smooth rational curves with self-intersection -2, where $\b_2$ is the…

Let SU_X(3) be the moduli space of semi-stable vector bundles of rank 3 and trivial determinant on a curve X of genus 2. It maps onto P^8 and the map is a double cover branched over a sextic hypersurface called the Coble sextic. In the dual…

We investigate birational properties of hypersurfaces of degree $6$ in the weighted projective space $\mathbf{P}(1,1,2,2,3)$. In particular, we prove that any such quasi-smooth hypersurface is not rational.

We study a double cover $\psi:X\to V\subset\mathbb{P}^{n}$ branched over a smooth divisor $R\subset V$ such that $R$ is cut on $V$ by a hypersurface of degree $2(n-\mathrm{deg}(V))$, where $n\geqslant 8$ and $V$ is a smooth hypersurface of…

We prove that the general quartic double solid with $k\leq 7$ nodes does not admit a Chow theoretic decomposition of the diagonal, or equivalently has a nontrivial universal ${\rm CH}_0$ group. The same holds if we replace in this statement…

In this article, we study the effects of topological and smooth obstructions on the existence of rational homology complex projective planes that admit quotient singularities of small indices. In particular, we provide a classification of…

We undertake a study of conic bundle threefolds $\pi\colon X\to W$ over geometrically rational surfaces whose associated discriminant covers $\tilde{\Delta}\to\Delta\subset W$ are smooth and geometrically irreducible. First, we determine…

We study rationality properties of quadric surface bundles over the projective plane. We exhibit families of smooth projective complex fourfolds of this type over connected bases, containing both rational and non-rational fibers.

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…

A general strategy is given for the classification of graphs of rational surface singularities. For each maximal rational double point configuration we investigate the possible multiplicities in the fundamental cycle. We classify completely…

We construct two small resolutions of singularities of the Coble fourfold (the double cover of the four-dimensional projective space branched over the Igusa quartic). We use them to show that all $S_6$-invariant three-dimensional quartics…

We introduce new obstructions to rationality for geometrically rational threefolds arising from the geometry of curves and their cycle maps.

We study rational cuspidal curves in projective surfaces. We specify two criteria obstructing possible configurations of singular points that may occur on such curves. One criterion generalizes the result of Fernandez de Bobadilla, Luengo,…

We study rational homology groups of one-point compactifications of spaces of complex monic polynomials with multiple roots. These spaces are indexed by number partitions. A standard reformulation in terms of quotients of orbit arrangements…

We study real double covers of $\mathbb P^1\times\mathbb P^2$ branched over a $(2,2)$-divisor, which have the structure of a conic bundle threefold with smooth quartic discriminant curve via the second projection. In each isotopy class of…

Let $k$ a field of characteristic zero. Let $X$ be a smooth, projective, geometrically rational $k$-surface. Let $\mathcal{T}$ be a universal torsor over $X$ with a $k$-point et $\mathcal{T}^c$ a smooth compactification of $\mathcal{T}$.…

We consider the class of singular double coverings $X \to \PP^3$ ramified in the degeneration locus $D$ of a family of 2-dimensional quadrics. These are precisely the quartic double solids constructed by Artin and Mumford as examples of…

We classify the possible torsion structures of rational elliptic curves over sextic number fields.