Related papers: Unirationality of cubic hypersurfaces

We develop a theory of Prym varieties and cubic threefolds over fields of characteristic $2$. As an application, we prove that smooth cubic threefolds are non-rational over an arbitrary field and solve a conjecture of Deligne regarding…

Let $S$ be a smooth cubic surface over a finite field $\mathbb F_q$. It is known that $\#S(\mathbb F_q) = 1 + aq + q^2$ for some $a \in \{-2,-1,0,1,2,3,4,5,7\}$. Serre has asked which values of a can arise for a given $q$. Building on…

We prove that a general $n$-fold quadric bundle $\mathcal{Q}^{n-1}\rightarrow\mathbb{P}^{1}$, over a number field, with $(-K_{\mathcal{Q}^{n-1}})^n > 0$ and discriminant of odd degree $\delta_{\mathcal{Q}^{n-1}}$ is unirational, and that…

Motivated by the question of rationality of cubic fourfolds, we show that a cubic X has an associated K3 surface in the sense of Hassett if and only if the variety F of lines on X is birational to a moduli space of sheaves on a K3 surface,…

Using Voisin's method we prove that a very general hypersurface of degree at least 4 in complex projective space of dimension 6, 7, 8 or 9 is not stably rational and so, in particular, not rational. We obtain the same conclusion for the…

We prove that the Cox ring of a smooth rational surface with big anticanonical class is finitely generated. We classify surfaces of this type that are blow-ups of the plane at distinct points lying on a (possibly reducible) cubic.

For every field $k$ of characteristic zero, we determine the groups that act as automorphisms on a smooth cubic surface over $k$. We also determine the groups that act on $k$-rational, stably $k$-rational, or $k$-unirational smooth cubic…

We generalize some results of Coray on closed points on cubic hypersurfaces. We show certain symmetric products of cubic hypersurfaces are stably birational.

This article describes a unirationality construction for general low degree complete intersections in projective space which is based on a variety of highly tangent lines. Applied to hypersurfaces, this implies that a general hypersurface…

Motivated by a kind of Penrose correspondence, we investigate the space of hyperplane sections of Segre quartic surfaces which have an ordinary cusp. We show that the space of such hyperplane sections is empty for two kinds of Segre…

We prove that any smooth rational projective surface over the field of complex numbers has an open covering consisting of 3 subsets isomorphic to affine planes.

We prove that the moduli space A_{11}^{lev} of (1,11) polarized abelian surfaces with level structure of canonical type is birational to Klein's cubic hypersurface: a^2b+b^2c+c^2d+d^2e+e^2a=0 in P^4. Therefore, A_{11}^{lev} is unirational…

We show that the count of rational points by de la Bret\`{e}che, Browning and Salberger on the Cayley ruled cubic surface extends to all non-normal integral hypercubics which are not cones.

We establish estimates for the number of solutions of certain affine congruences. These estimates are then used to prove Manin's conjecture for a cubic surface split over Q and whose singularity type is D_4. This improves on a result of…

We show that every supersingular K3 surface in characteristic 5 with Artin invariant less than or equal to 3 is unirational.

We construct a surface over $\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p$ with $\pi_1^{\'{e}t}(X) = 1$ that is supersingular -- in the sense that $H^2_{\'{e}t}(X, \mathbb{Q}_{\ell}(1))$ is spanned by algebraic cycles -- but is not unirational. This provides a…

We give an elementary proof of a recent result by Fishman, Kleinbock, Merrill and Simmons about rational points on quadratic surfaces.

We prove the failure of stable rationality for many smooth well formed weighted hypersurfaces of dimension at least 3. It is in particular proved that a very general smooth well formed Fano weighted hypersurface of index one is not stably…

We study points and 0-cycles on del Pezzo surfaces defined over a field K of characteristic 0, with emphasis on cubic surfaces. We prove that a cubic surface that admits a point defined over a field extension of K of degree coprime to 3…

Let $S \subset \P^n$ be a smooth quartic hypersurface defined over a number field $K$. If $n \ge 4$, then for some finite extension $K'$ of $K$ the set $S(K')$ of $K'$-rational points of $S$ is Zariski dense.