Related papers: Two-cover descent on plane quartics with rational …

We study $N$-congruences between quadratic twists of elliptic curves. If $N$ has exactly two distinct prime factors we show that these are parametrised by double covers of certain modular curves. In many, but not all cases, the modular…

Let ${\mathcal {B}}$ be a reducible reduced plane curve. We introduce a new point of view to study the topology of $(\PP^2, {\mathcal {B}})$ via Galois covers and Alexander polynomials. We show its effectiveness through examples of Zariski…

We prove that a very general hypersurface of bidegree (2, n) in P^2 x P^2 for n bigger than or equal to 2 is not stably rational, using Voisin's method of integral Chow-theoretic decompositions of the diagonal and their preservation under…

In 1922, Mordell conjectured that the set of rational points on a smooth curve $C$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ with genus $g \ge 2$ is finite. This has been proved by Faltings in 1983. However, Coleman determined in 1985 an upper bound of…

We give some new explicit examples of putatively optimal projective spherical designs. i.e., ones for which there is numerical evidence that they are of minimal size. These form continuous families, and so have little apparent symmetry in…

By Mazur's Torsion Theorem, there are fourteen possibilities for the non-trivial torsion subgroup $T$ of a rational elliptic curve. For each $T$, such that $E$ may have additive reduction at a prime $p$, we consider a parameterized family…

A conjecture of Serre concerns the number of rational points of bounded height on a finite cover of projective space P^{n-1}. In this paper, we achieve Serre's conjecture in the special case of smooth cyclic covers of any degree when n is…

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…

The blown up complex projective plane in the twelve triple points of the dual Hesse arrangement has an infinite number of irreducible rational curves of self-intersection $-1$, for short, $(-1)$-curves. In the preprint version of [Dumnicki,…

The corner polyhedron is described by minimal valid inequalities from maximal lattice-free convex sets. For the Relaxed Corner Polyhedron (RCP) with two free integer variables and any number of non-negative continuous variables, it is known…

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…

Cubic fourfolds of discriminant 24 contain special codimension-two algebraic cycles of degree 6 and self-intersection 20. Such cycles may be represented by singular scrolls or del Pezzo surfaces. A discriminant 24 cubic fourfold gives rise…

We reformulate a fundamental result due to Cook, Harbourne, Migliore and Nagel on the existence and irreduciblity of unexpected plane curves of a set of points $Z$ in $\mathbb{P}^2$, using the minimal degree of a Jacobian syzygy of the…

We consider $(1,1)$-surfaces, namely, minimal compact complex surfaces $S$ with $p_g (S) =K_S^2=1$: for these the bicanonical map is a covering of degree $4$ of the plane $\mathbb{P}^2$. And we answer a question posed by Meng Chen, whether…

Let $C$ be a smooth projective curve of genus 2 over a number field $k$ with a rational point. We prove that the index and exponent coincide for elements in the 2-torsion of $\Sha(Br(C))$. In the appendix, an isomorphism of the moduli space…

Let C/K: F = 0 be a smooth plane quartic over a complete discrete valuation field K. In a previous paper the authors togetehr with Q. Liu give various characterizations of the reduction (i.e. non-hyperelliptic genus 3 curve, hyperelliptic…

Let $P$ and $Q$ be two polynomials in two variables with coefficients in an algebraic closed field of characteristic zero. We consider the rational function $f=P/Q$. For an indeterminacy point $\text{x}$ of $f$ and a value $c$, we compute…

We compute twists of the modular curve $X(13)$ that parametrise the elliptic curves 13-congruent to a given elliptic curve. Searching for rational points on these twists enables us to find non-trivial pairs of 13-congruent elliptic curves…

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…

Motivated by studying boundary singularities of rational functions in two variables that are analytic on a domain, we investigate local integrability on $\mathbb{R}^2$ near $(0,0)$ of rational functions with denominator non-vanishing in the…