Related papers: Rational configuration problems and a family of cu…

This is an extended version of an invited lecture I gave at the Journees Arithmetiques in St. Etienne in July 2009. We discuss the state of the art regarding the problem of finding the set of rational points on a (smooth projective)…

By a hyperelliptic curve over Q, we mean a smooth, geometrically irreducible, complete curve C over Q equipped with a fixed map of degree 2 to P^1 defined over Q. Thus any hyperelliptic curve C over Q of genus g can be embedded in weighted…

Let K be an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. Given a polynomial f(x,y) in K[x,y] with one place at infinity, we prove that either f is equivalent to a coordinate, or the family (f+c) has at most two rational elements. When…

Consider the smooth projective models C of curves y^2=f(x) with f(x) in Z[x] monic and separable of degree 2g+1. We prove that for g >= 3, a positive fraction of these have only one rational point, the point at infinity. We prove a lower…

We study a particular plane curve over a finite field whose normalization is of genus 0. The number of rational points of this curve achieves the Aubry-Perret bound for rational curves. The configuration of its rational points and a…

We consider all genus 2 curves over Q given by an equation y^2 = f(x) with f a squarefree polynomial of degree 5 or 6, with integral coefficients of absolute value at most 3. For each of these roughly 200000 isomorphism classes of curves,…

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…

Given an integer $\gamma\geq 2$ and an odd prime power $q$ we show that for every large genus $g$ there exists a non-singular curve $C$ defined over $\mathbb{F}_q$ of genus $g$ and gonality $\gamma$ and with exactly $\gamma(q+1)$…

In this paper we study the number of rational points on curves in an ensemble of abelian covers of the projective line: Let $\ell$ be a prime, $q$ a prime power and consider the ensemble $\mathcal{H}_{g,\ell}$ of $\ell$-cyclic covers of…

Richard Guy asked for the largest set of points which can be placed in the plane so that their pairwise distances are rational numbers. In this article, we consider such a set of rational points restricted to a given hyperbola. To be…

Let $C$ be a hyperelliptic curve over $\mathbb Q$ described by $y^2=a_0x^n+a_1x^{n-1}+\ldots+a_n$, $a_i\in\mathbb Q$. The points $P_{i}=(x_{i},y_{i})\in C(\mathbb{Q})$, $i=1,2,...,k,$ are said to be in a geometric progression of length $k$…

Ulam asked in 1945 if there is an everywhere dense \emph{rational set}, i.e. a point set in the plane with all its pairwise distances rational. Erd\H os conjectured that if a set $S$ has a dense rational subset, then $S$ should be very…

Let $K$ be a field, $a, b\in K$ and $ab\neq 0$. Let us consider the polynomials $g_{1}(x)=x^n+ax+b, g_{2}(x)=x^n+ax^2+bx$, where $n$ is a fixed positive integer. In this paper we show that for each $k\geq 2$ the hypersurface given by the…

We find an asymptotic formula for the number of rational points near planar curves. More precisely, if $f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ is a sufficiently smooth function defined on the interval $[\eta,\xi]$, then the number of rational…

A rational triangle is a triangle with rational side lengths. We consider three different families of rational triangles having a fixed side and whose vertices are rational points in the plane. We display a one-to-one correspondence between…

Let $X$ be the product of two projective spaces and consider the general CICY threefold $Y$ in $X$ with configuration matrix $A$. We prove the finiteness part of the analogue of the Clemens' conjecture for such a CICY in low bidegrees. More…

We propose an approach for showing rationality of an algebraic variety $X$. We try to cover $X$ by rational curves of certain type and count how many curves pass through a generic point. If the answer is $1$, then we can sometimes reduce…

Given a smooth curve $C/\mathbb{Q}$ with genus $\geq 2$, we know by Faltings' Theorem that $C(\mathbb{Q})$ is finite. Here we ask the reverse question: given a finite set of rational points $S\subseteq \mathbb{P}^n(\mathbb{Q})$, does there…

Let $E$ be an elliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}$ described by $y^2= x^3+ Kx+ L$ where $K, L \in \mathbb{Q}$. A set of rational points $(x_i,y_i) \in E(\mathbb{Q})$ for $i=1, 2, \cdots, k$, is said to be a sequence of consecutive cubes on $E$…

A rational face cuboid is a cuboid that all of edges, two of three face diagonals and space diagonal have rational lengths. \[ E_{1,s}: y^2=x(x-(2s)^2)(x+(s^2-1)^2) \] for a rational number $s \neq 0, \pm 1$, and define $\tilde{A}$…