Related papers: A threefold violating a local-to-global principle …

This is a survey of the geometry of complex cubic fourfolds with a view toward rationality questions. Topics include classical constructions of rational examples, Hodge structures and special cubic fourfolds, associated K3 surfaces and…

In this paper, we show that projective globally $F$-regular threefolds, defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p\geq 11$, are rationally chain connected.

It is proved that the non-rationality of a generic cubic fourfold follows from a conjecture on the non-decomposability in the direct sum of non-trivial polarized Hodge structures of the polarized Hodge structure on transcendental cycles on…

We isolate a class of smooth rational cubic fourfolds X containing a plane whose associated quadric surface bundle does not have a rational section. This is equivalent to the nontriviality of the Brauer class of the even Clifford algebra…

We study rationality constructions for smooth complete intersections of two quadrics over nonclosed fields. Over the real numbers, we establish a criterion for rationality in dimension four.

Given a curve X of the form y^p = h(x) over a number field, one can use descents to obtain explicit bounds on the Mordell-Weil rank of the Jacobian or to prove that the curve has no rational points. We show how, having performed such a…

We construct examples of families of curves of genus 2 or 3 over Q whose Jacobians split completely and have various large rational torsion subgroups. For example, the rational points on a certain elliptic surface over P^1 of positive rank…

This work makes a parallel construction for curves on threefolds to a ``current-theoretic'' proof of Abel's theorem giving the rational equivalence of divisors P and Q on a Riemann surface when Q - P is (equivalent to) zero in the Jacobian…

The $\mathbb{Q}$-factoriality of a nodal quartic 3-fold implies its non-rationality. We prove that a nodal quartic 3-fold with at most 8 nodes is $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial, and we show that a nodal quartic 3-fold with 9 nodes is not…

In this paper we present a new method to show that a principal homogeneous space of the Jacobian of a curve of genus two is nontrivial. The idea is to exhibit a Brauer-Manin obstruction to the existence of rational points on a quotient of…

We show the cohomological monodromy for the universal family of smooth cubic threefolds does not factor through the genus five mapping class group. This gives a geometric group theory perspective on the well-known irrationality of cubic…

Let $X \subset \mathbb{P}(w_0, w_1, w_2, w_3)$ be a quasismooth well-formed weighted projective hypersurface and let $L = lcm(w_0,w_1,w_2,w_3)$. We characterize when $X$ is rational under the assumption that $L$ divides $deg(X)$ by…

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 prove that a smooth rationally connected projective threefold of Picard number two is toric if and only if it admits an int-amplified endomorphism. As a corollary, we show that a totally invariant smooth curve of a non-isomorphic…

We prove a criterion of nonsingularity of a complete intersection of two fiberwise quadrics in a scroll over $P^1$. As a corollary we derive the following addition to the Alexeev theorem on rationality of standard Del Pezzo fibrations of…

We show that if X is a smooth rationally connected threefold and C is a smooth projective curve then C can be embedded in X. Furthermore, a version of this property characterises rationally connected varieties of dimension at least 3. We…

We exhibit families of smooth projective threefolds with both stably rational and non stably rational fibers.

A double cover $Y$ of $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^2$ ramified over a general $(2,2)$-divisor will have the structure of a geometrically standard conic bundle ramified over a smooth plane quartic $\Delta \subset \mathbb{P}^2$ via the…

We give the first examples of derived equivalences between varieties defined over non-closed fields where one has a rational point and the other does not. We begin with torsors over Jacobians of curves over Q and F_q(t), and conclude with a…

In this article, we introduce a systematic and uniform construction of non-singular plane curves of odd degrees $n \geq 5$ which violate the local-global principle. Our construction works unconditionally for $n$ divisible by $p^2$ for some…