Related papers: Geometry of chains of minimal rational curves

We describe the irreducible components of the moduli spaces of rational curves on Artin-Mumford double solids. This provides the first example of Fano varieties that satisfy Geometric Manin's Conjecture with multiple Manin components in…

This is, mostly, a survey of results about the birational geometry of rationally connected manifolds, using rational curves analogous to lines in ${\mathbb P}^n$ ({\it quasi-lines}). Various characterizations of a Zariski neighbourhood of a…

We study the problem of finding curves of minimum pointwise-maximum arc-length derivative of curvature, here simply called curves of minimax spirality, among planar curves of fixed length with prescribed endpoints and tangents at the…

In this paper we study a family of curves obtained by fibre products of hyperelliptic curves. We then exploit this family to construct examples of curves of given genus g over a finite field Fq with many rational points. The results…

It is well known that one can find a rational normal curve in $\mathbb P^n$ through $n+3$ general points. We prove a generalization of this to higher dimensional varieties, showing that smooth varieties of minimal degree can be interpolated…

Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ denote the finite field with $q$ elements. In this work, we use characters to give the number of rational points on suitable curves of low degree over $\mathbb{F}_q$ in terms of the number of rational points on elliptic…

This paper explores the Fano variety of lines in hypersurfaces, particularly focusing on those with mild singularities. Our first result explores the irreducibility of the variety $\Sigma$ of lines passing through a singular point $y$ on a…

This is the unabridged web version of the paper that will be published on the American Journal of Mathematics. In this paper, we study the birational geometry of certain examples of mildly singular quartic 3-folds. A quartic 3-fold is an…

Much of arithmetic geometry is concerned with the study of principal bundles. They occur prominently in the arithmetic of elliptic curves and, more recently, in the study of the Diophantine geometry of curves of higher genus. In particular,…

In this paper, we show that general Fano complete intersections over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristics are separably rationally connected. Our proof also implies that general log Fano complete intersections with…

Let $X$ be the product of two projective spaces and consider the general CICY threefold $Y$ in $X$ with configuration matrix $A$. We prove the finiteness part of the analogue of the Clemens' conjecture for such a CICY in low bidegrees. More…

We characterize the smallest finite spaces with the same homotopy groups of the spheres. Similarly, we describe the minimal finite models of any finite graph. We also develop new combinatorial techniques based on finite spaces to study…

Working over imperfect fields, we give a comprehensive classification of genus-one curves that are regular but not geometrically regular, extending the known case of geometrically reduced curves. The description is given intrinsically, in…

This is an extended version of an invited lecture I gave at the Journees Arithmetiques in St. Etienne in July 2009. We discuss the state of the art regarding the problem of finding the set of rational points on a (smooth projective)…

Using ideas from the theory of tropical curves and degeneration, we prove that any Fano hypersurface (and more generally Fano complete intersections) is swept by at most quadratic rational curves.

We address the problem of the maximal finite number of real points of a real algebraic curve (of a given degree and, sometimes, genus) in the projective plane. We improve the known upper and lower bounds and construct close to optimal…

Let $f\colon X\to Y$ be a surjective morphism of Fano manifolds of Picard number 1 whose VMRTs at a general point are not dual defective. Suppose that the tangent bundle $T_X$ is big. We show that $f$ is an isomorphism unless $Y$ is a…

Venn diagrams are a graphical way to represent a set system. Each of the n sets is represented by a simple closed curve. The n curves subdivide the plane into 2^n open connected regions, each of which represents the intersection of its…

We show that mixed-characteristic and equi-characteristic small deformations of 3-dimensional canonical (resp. terminal) singularities with perfect residue field of characteristic $p>5$ are canonical (resp. terminal). We discuss…

Let X be a Fano manifold with Picard number one such that the tangent bundle T_X is big. If X admits a rational curve with trivial normal bundle, we show that X is isomorphic to the del Pezzo threefold of degree five.