Related papers: Beyond the square-root barrier: cubic forms of Per…
We use the circle method to count $\mathbb{F}_q(t)$-rational points of bounded naive height on a quadric hypersurface $X\subseteq \mathbb{P}^{n-1}$ defined over $\mathbb{F}_q$, provided that $\mathrm{char}(\mathbb{F}_q)>2$ and $n\ge 3$.…
The circle method has been successfully used over the last century to study rational points on hypersurfaces. More recently, a version of the method over function fields, combined with spreading out techniques, has led to a range of results…
Some classes of cubic fourfolds are birational to fibrations over $P^2$, where the fibers are rational surfaces. This is the case for cubics containing a plane (resp. an elliptic ruled surface), where the fibers are quadric surfaces (resp.…
We report on our project to construct non-singular cubic surfaces over $\bbQ$ with a rational line. Our method is to start with degree 4 Del Pezzo surfaces in diagonal form. For these, we develop an explicit version of Galois descent.
We exhibit new examples of rational cubic fourfolds, parametrized by a countably infinite union of codimension-two subvarieties in the moduli space. Our examples are fibered in sextic del Pezzo surfaces over the projective plane; they are…
We prove upper bounds for the number of rational points on non-singular cubic curves defined over the rationals. The bounds are uniform in the curve and involve the rank of the corresponding Jacobian. The method used in the proof is a…
Various methods have been used to construct rational points and rational curves on rationally connected algebraic varieties. We survey recent advances in two of them, the descent and the fibration method, in a number-theoretical context…
A version of the Hardy-Littlewood circle method is developed for number fields K/Q and is used to show that non-singular projective cubic hypersurfaces over K always have a K-rational point when they have dimension at least 8.
Upper and lower bounds, of the expected order of magnitude, are obtained for the number of rational points of bounded height on any quartic del Pezzo surface over $\mathbb{Q}$ that contains a conic defined over $\mathbb{Q}$.
Let X be a projective cubic hypersurface of dimension 11 or more, which is defined over the rationals. In this paper it is shown that X contains rational points provided that the cubic form defining X can be written as the sum of two forms…
For any number field k, upper bounds are established for the number of k-rational points of bounded height on non-singular del Pezzo surfaces defined over k, which are equipped with suitable conic bundle structures over k.
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…
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…
Here is a square problem: in a unit square, is there a point with four rational distances to the vertices? A probability argument suggests a negative answer. This paper proves several special cases of the square problem: if the point sits…
We study rationality properties of real singular cubic threefolds.
We describe a method that allows, under some hypotheses, to compute all the rational points of some genus 5 curves defined over a number field. This method is used to solve some arithmetic problems that remained open.
In this paper we develop the formalism of rational complex Bezier curves. This framework is a simple extension of the CAD paradigm, since it describes arc of curves in terms of control polygons and weights, which are extended to complex…
We investigate the distribution of rational points on singular cubic surfaces, whose coordinates have few prime factors. The key tools used are universal torsors, the circle method and results on linear equations in primes.
We obtain an explicit formula for the number of rational cuspidal curves of a given degree on a del-Pezzo surface that pass through an appropriate number of generic points of the surface. This enumerative problem is expressed as an Euler…
This paper presents geometric proofs for the irrationality of square roots of select integers, extending classical approaches. Building on known geometric methods for proving the irrationality of sqrt(2), the authors explore whether similar…