Related papers: Vari\'et\'es r\'eelles connexes non stablement rat…

We perform an intersection theoretic study of the rational map between two different moduli spaces of stable curves which associates to a curve its corresponding Brill-Noether locus (in the case this locus has virtual dimension 1). We then…

We study solutions of a homogeneous quadratic equation $q(x_0,\dots, x_n)=0$, defined over a field $K$, where the $x_i$ are themselves homogeneous polynomials of some degree $d$ in $r+1$ variables. Equivalently, we are looking at rational…

Given a power series in finitely many variables that is algebraic over the corresponding polynomial ring over a subfield of the reals, we show that its convergence domain is semialgebraic over the real closure of the subfield. This gives in…

Given a smooth subscheme of a projective space over a finite field, we compute the probability that its intersection with a fixed number of hypersurface sections of large degree is smooth of the expected dimension. This generalizes the case…

In this paper we consider a generalization of a well known result by Veronese about rational normal curves. More precisely, given a collection of linear spaces in $\PP^n$ we study the existence of rational normal curves intersecting each…

We show that a wide class of hypersurfaces in all dimensions are not stably rational. Namely, for all d at least about 2n/3, a very general complex hypersurface of degree d in P^{n+1} is not stably rational. The statement generalizes…

Let G be a simply connected absolutely simple algebraic group defined over the field of real numbers R. Let H be a simply connected semisimple R-subgroup of G. We consider the homogeneous space X=G/H. We ask: How many connected components…

We study the rationality of some geometrically rational three-dimensional conic and quadric surface bundles, defined over the reals and more general real closed fields, for which the real locus is connected and the intermediate Jacobian…

In this short note we prove that in many cases the failure of a variety to be separably rationally connected is caused by the instability of the tangent sheaf (if there are no other obvious reasons). A simple application of the results…

We construct a smooth complex projective rational surface with infinitely many mutually non-isomorphic real forms. This gives the first definite answer to a long standing open question if a smooth complex projective rational surface has…

Let X be a smooth hypersurface of degree d in P^n over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p. We show that X must be separably rationally connected and must contain a free line if either p is at least d or if p is at least d-1…

A variety is rationally connected if two general points can be joined by a rational curve. A higher version of this notion is rational simple connectedness, which requires suitable spaces of rational curves through two points to be…

We prove that there exist rational but not uniformly rational smooth algebraic varieties. The proof is based on computing a certain numerical obstruction developed in the case of compactifications of affine spaces. We show that for some…

Given a projective intersection of two quadrics X in at least 9 variables, the quantitative behaviour of the rational points on X is investigated under the assumption that X contains a pair of conjugate singular points defined over the…

We give examples of smooth $\k$-unirational line-free quartic hypersurfaces over a non algebraically closed field $\k$. Unlike other methods of proving unirationality, our method does not rely on existence of linear spaces on quartics.

We classify all positive integers n and r such that (stably) non-rational complex r-fold quadric bundles over rational n-folds exist. We show in particular that for any n and r, a wide class of smooth r-fold quadric bundles over projective…

Let q be a power of a prime integer p, and let X be a Hermitian variety of degree q+1 in the n-dimensional projective space. We count the number of rational normal curves that are tangent to X at distinct q+1 points with intersection…

We consider a so-called random obstacle model for the motion of a hypersurface through a field of random obstacles, driven by a constant driving field. The resulting semi-linear parabolic PDE with random coefficients does not admit a global…

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…

Motivated by our study (elsewhere) of linear syzygies of homogeneous ideals generated by quadrics and their restrictions to subvarieties of the ambient projective space, we investigate in this note possible zero-dimensional intersections of…