Related papers: A remark on the non-rationality Problem for generi…
The quartic hypersurfaces in P^4 invariant under the standard representation of S_6 form a linear pencil. We prove that a general member of this pencil is not rational.
A projective hypersurface is nodal if it does not have singularities worse than simple nodes. We calculate the rational cohomology of the spaces of equations of nodal cubic and quartic plane curves and also nodal cubic surfaces in the…
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,…
We study the question of the existence of a decomposition of the diagonal for very general quartic and $(2,3)$-complete intersection $n$-folds. Using cycle-theoretic techniques of Lange, Pavic and Schreieder we reduce the question via a…
Cubic fourfolds behave in many ways like K3 surfaces. Certain cubics - conjecturally, the ones that are rational - have specific K3s associated to them geometrically. Hassett has studied cubics with K3s associated to them at the level of…
In this paper, we consider the rationally elliptic projective fourfolds that are holomorphically embedded into the complex projective eight-space $\mathbb{P}^8$. It is proved that a simply-connected $\mathbb Q$-homological projective…
We show the cohomological monodromy for the universal family of smooth cubic threefolds does not factor through the genus five mapping class group. This gives a geometric group theory perspective on the well-known irrationality of cubic…
A solution to the problem of topological classification of real cubic fourfolds is presented. It is shown that the real locus of a real non-singular cubic fourfold is obtained from a projective 4-space either by adding several trivial one-…
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…
We prove a general specialization theorem which implies stable irrationality for a wide class of quadric surface bundles over rational surfaces. As an application, we solve with the exception of two cases, the stable rationality problem for…
We study the moduli spaces of rational curves on cubic hypersurfaces in characteristic $\neq2,3$. As a result, we prove that for every integer $d\geq1$ the Kontsevich moduli space of stable maps on a smooth cubic hypersurface $X$ of degree…
The Russell cubic is a smooth contractible affine complex threefold which is not isomorphic to affine three-space. In previous articles, we discussed the structure of the automorphism group of this variety. Here we review some consequences…
An arithmetic method of proving the irrationality of smooth projective 3-folds is described, using reduction modulo $p$. It is illustrated by an application to a cubic threefold, for which the hypothesis that its intermediate Jacobian is…
Let k be a finite field with characteristic exceeding 3. We prove that the space of rational curves of fixed degree on any smooth cubic hypersurface over k with dimension at least 11 is irreducible and of the expected dimension.
We give a constructive proof of the Hodge conjecture for complex $K3$ surfaces that does not rely on Torelli-type results. Starting with an arbitrary rational $(1,1)$-class $\alpha\in H^{1,1}(X,\mathbb{Q})$, we algorithmically build a…
We consider the question whether a real threefold X fibred into quadric surfaces over the real projective line is stably rational (over R) if the topological space X(R) is connected. We give a counterexample. When all geometric fibres are…
We construct some natural cycles with trivial regulator in the higher Chow groups of Jacobians. For hyperelliptic curves we use a criterion due to J. Lewis to prove that the cycles we construct are indecomposable, and then use a…
Graded Hecke algebras can be constructed in terms of equivariant cohomology and constructible sheaves on nilpotent cones. In earlier work, their standard modules and their irreducible modules where realized with such geometric methods. We…
A well known conjecture asserts that a cubic fourfold X is rational if it has a cohomologically associated K3 surface. G.Ouchi proved that if X admits a finite group G of symplectic automorphisms, whose order is different from 2, then X has…
We develop a new general method for computing the decomposition type of the normal bundle to a projective rational curve. This method is then used to detect and explain an example of a Hilbert scheme that parametrizes all the rational…