Related papers: Rational normal curves as no-$(d+2)$-on-$Q$-quadri…

A rational function is the ratio of two complex polynomials in one variable without common roots. Its degree is the maximum of the degrees of the numerator and the denominator. Rational functions belong to the same class if one turns into…

In this paper we study existence and uniqueness of rational normal curves in $\PP^n$ passing through $p$ points and intersecting $l$ codimension two linear spaces in $n-1$ points each. If $p+l=n+3$ and the points and the linear spaces are…

The systems of complex analytic second order ordinary differential equations whose solutions close up to become rational curves (after analytic continuation) are characterized by the vanishing of an explicit differential invariant, and turn…

We construct the canonical structure of an irreducible projective variety on the set of connected curves of degree $d$ in $\Bbb P^n$ with rational components (some components can be multiple). The set of rational curves is open subset in…

A determination of the fixed components, base points and irregularity is made for arbitrary numerically effective divisors on any smooth projective rational surface having an effective anticanonical divisor. All of the results are proven…

We show that the complement of a degree $d$ hypersurface in a projective complete intersection, whose defining equations have degrees strictly larger than $d$, has a rational connectivity higher than expected. The key new feature is that a…

Let $b_{\bullet}$ be a sequence of integers $1 < b_1 \leq b_2 \leq \cdots \leq b_{n-1}$. Let $M(b_{\bullet})$ be the space parameterizing nondegenerate, rational curves of degree $e$ in $\mathbb{P}^n$ with ordinary singularities such that…

Let X be a complex, rationally connected, projective manifold. We show that X admits a modification X' that contains a quasi-line, ie a smooth rational curve whose normal bundle is a direct sum of copies of O_{P^1}(1). For manifolds…

All rational parametric curves with prescribed polynomial tangent direction form a vector space. Via tangent directions with rational norm, this includes the important case of rational Pythagorean hodograph curves. We study vector subspaces…

We show that a rational normal scroll can in general be set-theoretically defined by a proper subset of the 2-minors of the associated two-row matrix. This allows us to find a class of rational normal scrolls that are almost set-theoretic…

Consider a smooth, geometrically irreducible, projective curve of genus $g \ge 2$ defined over a number field of degree $d \ge 1$. It has at most finitely many rational points by the Mordell Conjecture, a theorem of Faltings. We show that…

Let $L$ be a very ample line bundle on a smooth curve $C$ of genus $g$ with $\frac{3g+3}{2}<\deg L\le 2g-5$. Then $L$ is normally generated if $\deg L>\max\{2g+2-4h^1(C,L), 2g-\frac{g-1}{6}-2h^1(C,L)\}$. Let $C$ be a triple covering of…

We provide algorithms to reconstruct rational ruled surfaces in three-dimensional projective space from the `apparent contour' of a single projection to the projective plane. We deal with the case of tangent developables and of general…

We give a criterion for a nef divisor $D$ to be semiample on a Calabi--Yau threefold $X$ when $D^3=0=c_2(X)\cdot D$ and $c_3(X)\neq 0$. As a direct consequence, we show that on such a variety $X$, if $D$ is strictly nef and $\nu(D)\neq 1$,…

We first show that the union of a projective curve with one of its extremal secant lines satisfies the linear general position principle for hyperplane sections. We use this to give an improved approximation of the Betti numbers of curves…

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…

A cubic hypersurface in $\mathbb{P}^n$ defined over $\mathbb{Q}$ is given by the vanishing locus of a cubic form $f$ in $n+1$ variables. It is conjectured that when $n \geq 4$, such cubic hypersurfaces satisfy the Hasse principle. This is…

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…

The aim of these notes is to explain the remarkable formula found by Yau and Zaslow to express the number of rational curves on a K3 surface. Projective K3 surfaces fall into countably many families F(g) (g>0); a surface in F(g) admits a…

We describe a new method for constructing a spectrahedral representation of the hyperbolicity region of a hyperbolic curve in the real projective plane. As a consequence, we show that if the curve is smooth and defined over the rational…