The framework of universal geometry allows us to consider metrical properties of affine views of elliptic curves, even over finite fields. We show how the Neuberg cubic of triangle geometry extends to the finite field situation and provides interesting potential invariants for elliptic curves, focussing on an explicit example over $\mathbb{F}_{23}$. We also prove that tangent conics for a Weierstrass cubic are identical or disjoint.
This small note presents in any dimension a family of cubics that have finite-dimensional motive (in the sense of Kimura). As an illustration, we verify a conjecture of Voevodsky for these cubics, and a conjecture of Murre for the Fano variety of lines of these cubics.
We prove that cubic fourfolds in a certain 10-dimensional family have finite-dimensional motive. The proof is based on the van Geemen-Izadi construction of an algebraic Kuga-Satake correspondence for these cubic fourfolds, combined with Voisin's method of "spread". Some consequences are given.
We construct nontrivial homomorphisms from the quasi group of some cubic surfaces over $\bbF_{\!p}$ into a group. We show experimentally that the homomorphisms constructed are the only possible ones and that there are no nontrivial homomorphisms in the other cases. Thereby, we follow the classification of cubic surfaces, due to A. Cayley.
In this note, we study linear determinantal representations of smooth plane cubics over finite fields. We give an explicit formula of linear determinantal representations corresponding to rational points. Using Schoof's formula, we count the number of projective equivalence classes of smooth plane cubics over a finite field admitting prescribed number of equivalence classes of linear determinantal representations. As an application, we determine isomorphism classes of smooth plane cubics over a finite field with 0, 1 or 2 equivalence classes of linear determinantal representations.
Recently N. Levin (Comp. Math. 127 (2001), 1--21) proved the Tate conjecture for ordinary cubic fourfolds over finite fields. In this paper we prove the Tate conjecture for self-products of ordinary cubic fourfolds. Our proof is based on properties of so called polynomials of K3 type introduced by the author (Duke Math. J. 72 (1993), 65--83).
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.
Let $X$ be a smooth cubic hypersurface, and let $F$ be the Fano variety of lines on $X$. We establish a relation between the Chow motives of $X$ and $F$. This relation implies in particular that if $X$ has finite-dimensional motive (in the sense of Kimura), then $F$ also has finite-dimensional motive. This proves finite-dimensionality for motives of Fano varieties of cubics of dimension $3$ and $5$, and of certain cubics in other dimensions.
Let $X$ be a minimal cubic surface over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. The image $Γ$ of the Galois group $\operatorname{Gal}(\overline{\mathbb{F}}_q / \mathbb{F}_q)$ in the group $\operatorname{Aut}(\operatorname{Pic}(\overline{X}))$ is a cyclic subgroup of the Weyl group $W(E_6)$. There are $25$ conjugacy classes of cyclic subgroups in $W(E_6)$, and $5$ of them correspond to minimal cubic surfaces. It is natural to ask which conjugacy classes come from minimal cubic surfaces over a given finite field. In this paper we give a partial answer to this question and present many explicit examples.
In this short note, we show that there exist one dimensional families of cubic fourfolds with Chow motive of abelian type and finite dimensional inside every Hassett divisor of special cubic fourfolds. This also implies abelianity and finite dimensionality of the motive of related Hyperkähler varieties, such as the Fano variety of lines and the LLSvS 8fold.
Let $V$ be a plane smooth cubic curve over a finitely generated field $k.$ The Mordell-Weil theorem for $V$ states that there is a finite subset $P\subset V(k)$ such that the whole $V(k)$ can be obtained from $P$ by drawing secants and tangents through pairs of previously constructed points and consecutively adding their new intersection points with $V.$ Equivalently, the group of birational transformations of $V$ generated by reflections with respect to $k$-points is finitely generated. In this paper, elaborating an idea from [M3], we establish a Mordell-Weil type finite generation result for…
Let X->P^(n-1) be an elliptic fibration obtained by resolving the indeterminacy of the projection of a cubic hypersurface Y of P^(n+1) from a line L not contained in Y. We prove that the Mordell-Weil group of the elliptic fibration is finite if and only if the Cox ring of X is finitely generated. We also provide a presentation of the Cox ring of X when it is finitely generated.
We give a brief report on our computations of linear determinantal representations of smooth plane cubics over finite fields. After recalling a classical interpretation of linear determinantal representations as rational points on the affine part of Jacobian varieties, we give an algorithm to obtain all linear determinantal representations up to equivalence. We also report our recent study on computations of linear determinantal representations of twisted Fermat cubics defined over the field of rational numbers. This paper is a summary of the author's talk at the JSIAM JANT workshop on algorit…
We study and partially classify cubic rational expressions $g(x)/h(x)$ over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, up to pre- and post-composition with independent Möbius transformations. In particular, we obtain a full classification when $q$ is even, and prove an upper bound of $4q$ for the number of equivalence classes when $q$ is odd.
Segre proved that a smooth cubic surface over Q is unirational iff it has a rational point. We prove that the result also holds for cubic hypersurfaces over any field, including finite fields.
The classical Pell equation can be extended to the cubic case considering the elements of norm one in $Z[\sqrt[3]{r}]$, which satisfy $x^3 + r y^3 + r^2 z^3 - 3 r x y z = 1$. The solution of the cubic Pell equation is harder than the classical case, indeed a method for solving it as Diophantine equation is still missing. In this paper, we study the cubic Pell equation over finite fields, extending the results that hold for the classical one. In particular, we provide a novel method for counting the number of solutions in all possible cases depending on the value of r. Moreover, we are also abl…
Let $X$ be a cubic fourfold in $P^5_{C}$. We prove that, assuming the Hodge conjecture for the product $S \times S$, where $S$ is a complex surface, and the finite dimensionality of the Chow motive $h(S)$, there are at most a countable number of decomposable integral polarized Hodge structures, arising from the fibers of a family of smooth projective surfaces. According to the results in [ABB] this is related to a conjecture proving the irrationality of a very general $X$. If $X$ is special, in the sense of B.Hasset, and $F(X) \simeq S^{[2]}$, with $S$ a K3 surface associated to $X$, then we s…
In this paper we study combinatorial invariants of the equivalence classes of pencils of cubics on $\mathrm{PG}(1,q)$, for $q$ odd and $q$ not divisible by 3. These equivalence classes are considered as orbits of lines in $\mathrm{PG}(3,q)$, under the action of the subgroup $G\cong \mathrm{PGL}(2,q)$ of $\mathrm{PGL}(4,q)$ which preserves the twisted cubic $\mathcal{C}$ in $\mathrm{PG}(3,q)$. In particular we determine the point orbit distributions and plane orbit distributions of all $G$-orbits of lines which are contained in an osculating plane of $\mathcal{C}$, have non-empty intersection w…
These are the substantially expanded notes of the lectures of JK at the summer school "Higher-Dimensional Geometry over Finite Fields" in Göttingen, June 2007. The first part gives an overview of the methods. The main new result is the construction of rational curves passing through a given collection of points on smooth cubic hypersurfaces over finite fields.
We show that smooth cubic hypersurfaces of dimension $n$ defined over a finite field ${\bf F}_q$ contain a line defined over ${\bf F}_q$ in each of the following cases: - $n=3$ and $q\ge 11$; - $n=4$ and $q\ne 3$; - $n\ge 5$. For a smooth cubic threefold $X$, the variety of lines contained in $X$ is a smooth projective surface $F(X)$ for which the Tate conjecture holds, and we obtain information about the Picard number of $F(X)$ and its 5-dimensional principally polarized Albanese variety $A(F(X))$.
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 curves. In the case where $q$ is a prime number, we give a way to calculate these numbers. As a consequence of these results, we characterize maximal and minimal curves given by equations of the forms $ax^3+by^3+cz^3=0$ and $ax^4+by^4+cz^4=0$.
Let V be a plane smooth cubic curve over a finitely generated field k. The Mordell-Weil theorem for V states that there is a finite subset P \subset V(k) such that the whole V(k) can be obtained from P by drawing secants and tangents through pairs of previously constructed points and consecutively adding their new intersection points with V. In this paper we present numerical data regarding the analogous statement for cubic surfaces. For the surfaces examined, we also test Manin's conjecture relating the asymptotics of rational points of bounded height on a Fano variety with the rank of the Pi…
We compute the rational cohomology of the universal family of smooth cubic surfaces using Vassiliev's method of simplicial resolution. Modulo embedding, the universal family has cohomology isomorphic to that of $\mathbb{P}^2$. A consequence of our theorem is that over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, away from finitely many characteristics, the average number of points on a smooth cubic surface is $q^2 + q + 1$.
We address the question of the degree of unirational parameterizations of degree four and degree three del Pezzo surfaces. Specifically we show that degree four del Pezzo surfaces over finite fields admit degree two parameterizations and minimal cubic surfaces admit parameterizations of degree 6. It is an open question whether or not minimal cubic surfaces over finite fields can admit degree 3 or 4 parameterizations.
A Fano surface of a smooth cubic threefold X in P^4 parametrizes the lines on X. In this note, we prove that a Fano surface satisfies the Tate conjecture over a field of finite type over the prime field and characteristic not 2.
We classify finite groups acting by birational transformations of a non-trivial Severi--Brauer surface over a field of characteristc zero that are not conjugate to subgroups of the automorphism group. Also, we show that the automorphism group of a smooth cubic surface over a field $K$ of characteristic zero that has no $K$-points is abelian, and find a sharp bound for the Jordan constants of birational automorphism groups of such cubic surfaces.
We adapt for algebraically closed fields $k$ of characteristic greater than $2$ two results of Voisin, on the decomposition of the diagonal of a smooth cubic hypersurface $X$ of dimension $3$ over $\mathbb C$, namely: the equivalence between Chow-theoretic and cohomological decompositions of the diagonal of those hypersurfaces and the fact that the algebraicity (with $\mathbb Z_2$-coefficients) of the minimal class $θ^4/4!$ of the intermediate jacobian $J(X)$ of $X$ implies the Chow-theoretic decomposition of the diagonal of $X$. Using the second result, the Tate conjecture for divisors on sur…
In this paper we compute the distributions of various markings on smooth cubic surfaces defined over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, for example the distribution of pairs of points, `tritangents' or `double sixes'. We also compute the (rational) cohomology of certain associated bundles and covers over complex numbers.
Let C be a smooth cubic curve in the complex projective plane. We show that for every positive integer k, there are only finite number of rational curves of degree k each intersects the cubic C at exactly one point. The number of such rational curves is known when k is 1, as a smooth cubic has 9 flexes points. This number seems to be closely related to the number of plane rational curves of degree k passing through 3k-1 general points, which has been computed.
