Related papers: Beyond the Manin obstruction
We consider the problem of counting the number of rational points on the family of Kummer surfaces associated with two non-isogenous elliptic curves. For this two-parameter family we prove Manin's unity, using the presentation of the Kummer…
In this paper we study the existence of rational points for the family of K3 surfaces over $\mathbb{Q}$ given by $$w^2 = A_1x_1^6 + A_2x_2^6 + A_3x_3^6.$$ When the coefficients are ordered by height, we show that the Brauer group is almost…
It is known that the Brauer--Manin obstruction to the Hasse principle is vacuous for smooth Fano hypersurfaces of dimension at least $3$ over any number field. Moreover, for such varieties it follows from a general conjecture of…
We prove Manin's conjecture for a singular cubic surface S with a singularity of type E6. If U is the open subset of S obtained by deleting the unique line from S, then the number of rational points in U with anticanonical height bounded by…
Following recent work by E. Fuchs et al., we study the Brauer-Manin obstruction for integral points on Wehler K3 surfaces of Markoff type. In particular, we construct some families which fail the integral Hasse principle via the…
We describe smooth rational projective algebraic surfaces X, over an algebraically closed field of characteristic different from 2, having an even set of four disjoint (-2)-curves N_1,...,N_4, i.e. such that N_1+...+N_4 is divisible by 2 in…
Let $X$ be a smooth projective hypersurface defined over $\mathbb{Q}$. We provide new bounds for rational points of bounded height on $X$. In particular, we show that if $X$ is a smooth projective hypersurface in $\mathbb{P}^n$ with $n\geq…
We give explicit blowups of the projective plane in positive characteristic that contain smooth rational curves of arbitrarily negative self-intersection, showing that the Bounded Negativity Conjecture fails even for rational surfaces in…
A complex projective manifold is rationally connected, resp. rationally simply connected, if finite subsets are connected by a rational curve, resp. the spaces parameterizing these connecting rational curves are themselves rationally…
A conjecture of Manin predicts the distribution of K-rational points on certain algebraic varieties defined over a number field K. In recent years, a method using universal torsors has been successfully applied to several hard special cases…
Fix $k,s,n\in \mathbb N$, and consider non-zero integers $c_1,\ldots ,c_s$, not all of the same sign. Provided that $s\ge k(k+1)$, we establish a Hasse principle for the existence of lines having integral coordinates lying on the affine…
We prove a surface embedding theorem for 4-manifolds with good fundamental group in the presence of dual spheres, with no restriction on the normal bundles. The new obstruction is a Kervaire-Milnor invariant for surfaces and we give a…
Let $X$ be a cubic surface over a global field $k$. We prove that a Brauer-Manin obstruction to the existence of $k$-points on $X$ will persist over every extension $L/k$ with degree relatively prime to $3$. In other words, a cubic surface…
We prove a version of Manin's conjecture (over $\mathbb{F}_{q}$ for $q$ large) and the Cohen--Jones--Segal conjecture (over $\mathbb{C}$) for maps from rational curves to split quartic del Pezzo surfaces. The proofs share a common method…
Let $\mathcal{E}_{f}:y^2=x^3+f(t)x$, where $f\in\Q[t]\setminus\Q$, and let us assume that $\op{deg}f\leq 4$. In this paper we prove that if $\op{deg}f\leq 3$, then there exists a rational base change $t\mapsto\phi(t)$ such that on the…
We count rational points of bounded height on the non-normal senary quartic hypersurface x 4 = (y 2 1 + $\times$ $\times$ $\times$ + y 2 4)z 2 in the spirit of Manin's conjecture.
We determine the odd order torsion subgroup of the Brauer group of diagonal quartic surfaces over the field of rational numbers. We show that a non-constant Brauer element of odd order always obstructs weak approximation but never the Hasse…
We consider the structure of rational points on elliptic curves in Weierstrass form. Let x(P)=A_P/B_P^2 denote the $x$-coordinate of the rational point P then we consider when B_P can be a prime power. Using Faltings' Theorem we show that…
Harer, Kas and Kirby have conjectured that every handle decomposition of the elliptic surface $E(1)_{2,3}$ requires both 1- and 3-handles. In this article, we construct a smooth 4-manifold which has the same Seiberg-Witten invariant as…
We construct a linearly normal smooth rational surface S of degree 11 and sectional genus 8 in the projective fivespace. Surfaces satisfying these numerical invariants are special, in the sense that $h^1(\mathscr{O}_S(1))>0$. Our…