Let $K$ be a number field, and let $\mathcal{X}$ be a proper regular flat scheme over $\mathcal{O}_{K}$ with a generic fiber $X$ geometrically connected over $K$. We prove that there is an exact sequence up to finite groups $0\rightarrow Sha(Pic_{X/K}^0)\rightarrow Br(\mathcal{X})\rightarrow Br(X_{\bar{K}})^{G_K}\rightarrow 0$, which generalizes a theorem of Artin and Grothendieck for arithmetic surfaces to arbitrary dimensions. Consequently, we reduce Artin's question regarding the finiteness of $Br(\mathcal{X})$ for proper regular flat schemes $\mathcal{X}$ over $\mathbb{Z}$ to $3$-dimensional arithmetic schemes.
We study the Brauer-Manin obstruction to the existence of zero-cycles of degree $d$ on certain classes of varieties over number fields. We generalise existing results in the literature and prove some results about fibrations over the projective line, where the geometric Brauer group of the generic fibre is not assumed to be finite. The idea is to assume that the Brauer-Manin obstruction to the Hasse principle is the only one for certain fibres and then deduce analogous results for zero-cycles.
Let $X$ be a smooth projective variety with a fibration into varieties that either satisfy a condition on representability of zero-cycles or that are torsors under an abelian variety. We study the classes in the Brauer group that never obstruct the Hasse principle for $X$. We prove that if the generic fiber has a zero-cycle of degree $d$ over the generic point, then the Brauer classes whose orders are prime to $d$ do not play a role in the Brauer--Manin obstruction. As a result we show that the odd torsion Brauer classes never obstruct the Hasse principle for del Pezzo surfaces of degree 2, ce…
Transcendental Brauer elements are notoriously difficult to compute. Work of Wittenberg, and later, Ieronymou, gives a method for computing 2-torsion transcendental classes on surfaces that have a genus 1 fibration with rational 2-torsion in the Jacobian fibration. We use ideas from a descent paper of Poonen and Schaefer to remove this assumption on the rational 2-torsion.
We discuss the geometry of the genus one fibrations associated to an elliptic fibration on a K3 surface. We show that the two-torsion subgroup of the Brauer group of a general elliptic fibration is naturally isomorphic to the two-torsion of the Jacobian of a curve associated to the fibration. We remark that this is related to Recillas' trigonal construction. Finally we discuss the two-torsion in the Brauer group of a general K3 surface with a polarisation of degree two.
We study arithmetic properties of del Pezzo surfaces of degree 4 for which the Brauer group has the largest possible order using different fibrations into curves. We show that if such a surface admits a conic fibration, then it always has a rational point. We also answer a question of Várilly-Alvarado and Viray by showing that the Brauer groups these surfaces cannot be vertical with respect to any projection away from a plane. We conclude that the available techniques for proving existence of rational points or even Zariski density do not directly apply if there is no Brauer-Manin obstruction …
The Abstract for this revised version is the following: Let k be a number field, let C be a smooth, projective and geometrically integral k-curve and let p:X --> C be a Severi-Brauer k-fibration of squarefree index. Various authors have studied the cokernel of the natural map CH_{0}(X/C)-->\bigoplus_{v}CH_{0}(X_{v}/C_{v}), where CH_{0}(X/C) is the kernel of p_{*}:CH_{0}(X)-->CH_{0}(C). In this paper I obtain an exact sequence which relates the Tate-Shafarevich group of the kernel of the above map to the Tate-Shafarevich group of the Neron-Severi torus of X. I then obtain conditions under which…
We study the local-global principle for zero-cycles of degree 1 on certain varieties fibered over the projective space. Among other applications, we prove that the Brauer-Manin obstruction is the only obstruction to the Hasse principle and weak approximation for zero-cycles of degree 1 on Severi-Brauer-variety bundles or Châtelet-surface bundles over the projective space.
Recently Dasheng Wei proved that the Brauer-Manin obstruction is the only obstruction to the Hasse principle for 0-cycles of degree 1 on some fibrations over the projective line defined by bi-cyclic normic equations. In the present paper, we prove the exactness of the global-to-local sequence for Chow groups of 0-cycles of such varieties, which signifies that the Brauer-Manin obstruction is also the only obstruction to weak approximation for 0-cycles of arbitrary degree. Our main theorem also generalizes several existing results.
We prove that the Brauer-Manin obstruction is the only obstruction to the Hasse principle and to the weak approximation for zero-cycles on certain fibrations over a smooth curve or over the projective space. The principal novelty is that the arithmetic hypotheses are supposed only on the fibres over a generalized Hilbertian subset.
We study local-global principles for zero-cycles on K3 surfaces defined over number fields. We follow an idea of Liang to use the trivial fibration over the projective line.
Given a Cayley-Hamilton smooth order A in a central simple algebra $Σ$, we determine the flat locus of the Brauer-Severi fibration of the smooth order. Moreover, we give a classification of all (reduced) central singularities where the flat locus differs from the Azumaya locus and show that the fibers over the flat, non-Azumaya points near these central singularities can be described as fibered products of graphs of projection maps, thus generalizing an old result of Artin on the fibers of the Brauer-Severi fibration over a ramified point. Finally, we show these fibers are also toric quiver va…
We consider the problem of counting the number of varieties in a family over $\mathbb{Q}$ with a rational point. We obtain lower bounds for this counting problem for some families over $\mathbb{P}^1$, even if the Hasse principle fails. We also obtain sharp results for some multinorm equations and for specialisations of certain Brauer group elements on higher dimensional projective spaces, where we answer some cases of a question of Serre. Our techniques come from arithmetic geometry and additive combinatorics.
In 2010, Poonen gave the first example of failure of the local-global principle that cannot be explained by Skorobogatov's étale Brauer-Manin obstruction. Motivated by this example, we show that the Brauer-Manin obstruction detects non-existence of rational points on a sufficiently fine Zariski open cover of any variety over an imaginary quadratic or totally real field. We provide some evidence for why this is expected to happen more generally over any number field, some of which relates to the section conjecture in anabelian geometry. We then prove a result about the behavior of the étale Bra…
Let $X$ be a smooth projective variety over a number field, fibered over a curve, with geometrically integral fibers. We prove that, supposing the finiteness of $\sha(Jac(C))$, if the fibers over a generalised Hilbertian subset satisfy the Hasse principle (resp. weak approximation), then the Brauer-Manin obstruction coming from the base curve is the only obstruction to the Hasse principle (resp. to weak approximation) for zero-cycles of degree 1 on $X$.
Since Poonen's construction of a variety $X$ defined over a number field $k$ for which $X(k)$ is empty and the étale Brauer--Manin set $X(\mathbf{A}_k)^\text{Br,et}$ is not, several other examples of smooth, projective varieties have been found for which the étale Brauer--Manin obstruction does not explain the failure of the Hasse principle. All known examples are constructed using "Poonen's trick", i.e. they have the distinctive feature of being fibrations over a higher genus curve; in particular, their Albanese variety is non-trivial. In this paper, we construct examples for which the Albane…
Let $X$ be a projective and smooth variety over a field $k$. The goal of this paper is to prove that the cokernel of the canonical map $Br(X)\to Br(X_{k^s})^{G_k}$ has a finite exponent. Both groups are natural invariants arising from consideration of the Tate conjecture of divisors over $X$.
We generalize the results of Skorobogatov and Zarhin considering the commutativity of Brauer groups (and Brauer-Manin sets) with taking product of two varieties, by relaxing the condition that varieties are projective.
Let $k$ be a number field and let $T$ be a $k$-torus. Consider a fibration in torsors under $T$, i.e. a morphism $f: X \to \mathbb{P}^1_k$ from a smooth, projective $k$-variety $X$ to $\mathbb{P}^1_k$ such that the generic fibre $X_η\to η$ is a smooth compactification of a principal homogeneous space under $T \times_k η$. We study the Brauer-Manin obstruction to the Hasse principle and weak approximation for $X$, under Schinzel's hypothesis, thereby generalizing recent work of Wei. Our results are unconditional if $k = \mathbb{Q}$ and the non-split fibres of $f$ are defined over $\mathbb{Q}$.
We study the Brauer-Manin obstruction to the Hasse principle and to weak approximation for 0-cycles on algebraic varieties that possess a fibration structure. The exactness of the local-to-global sequence $(E)$ of Chow groups of 0-cycles was known only for a fibration whose base is either a curve or the projective space. In the present paper, we prove the exactness of $(E)$ for fibrations whose bases are Châtelet surfaces or projective models of homogeneous spaces of connected linear algebraic groups with connected stabilizers. We require that either all fibres are split and most fibres satisf…
We relate the Brauer group of a Kummer surface to the Brauer group of the corresponding abelian surface. For many pairs of elliptic curves over the rational numbers we prove that the Kummer surface attached to their product has trivial Brauer group.
Using a reduction of the Galois cohomology of a linear algebraic group $G$ to that of a certain finite subquotient, we give different formulas allowing the calculation of the unramified algebraic Brauer group of a homogeneous space $V=G\backslash G'$ with $G'$ semisimple and simply connected, both over a finite field and over an arbitrary field of characteristic $0$.
We produce a partial compactification of the variety given by P(t)=N_{K/k}(\mathbf z) whose Brauer group coincides with the unramified Brauer group, where K is an étale k-algebra and P(t)\in k[t] is a nonconstant polynomial. Then we obtain a systematic method to compute the unramified Brauer group for all such varieties.
Let $k$ be a field and $X/k$ be a smooth quasiprojective orbifold. Let $X\to \underline{X}$ be its coarse moduli space. In this paper we study the Brauer group of $X$ and compare it with the Brauer group of the smooth locus of $\underline{X}$.
This is a textbook on arithmetic geometry with special regard to unramified Brauer groups of algebraic varieties. The topics include Galois cohomology, Brauer groups, obstructions to stable rationality, arithmetic and geometry of quadrics, Weil restriction of scalars, algebraic tori, an example of a stably rational non-rational variety, Brauer-Manin obstruction. All material is split into locally trivial problems with detailed hints.
We give a formula relating the order of the Brauer group of a surface fibered over a curve over a finite field to the order of the Tate-Shafarevich group of the Jacobian of the generic fiber. The formula implies that the Brauer group of a smooth and proper surface over a finite field is a square if it is finite.
We obtain an easy sufficient condition for the Brauer group of a diagonal quartic surface D over Q to be algebraic. We also give an upper bound for the order of the quotient of the Brauer group of D by the image of the Brauer group of Q. The proof is based on the isomorphism of the Fermat quartic surface with a Kummer surface due to Masumi Mizukami.
For a homogeneous space X of a connected algebraic group G (with connected stabilizers) over a field k of characteristic zero, we construct a canonical complex of Galois modules of length 3 and a canonical isomorphism between an hypercohomology group of this complex and an explicit subgroup of the Brauer group of X. This result is obtained as a consequence of a formula describing the "algebraic Brauer group of a torsor", and it generalizes recent results by Borovoi and van Hamel, by considering non-linear groups G and by taking into account some transcendental elements in the Brauer group of X…
Let X_K be a proper, smooth and geometrically connected curve over a global field K. In this paper we generalize a formula of Milne relating the order of the Tate-Shafarevich group of the Jacobian of X_K to the order of the Brauer group of a proper regular model of X_K. We thereby partially answer a question of Grothendieck.
We study Kummer varieties attached to 2-coverings of abelian varieties of arbitrary dimension. Over a number field we show that the subgroup of odd order elements of the Brauer group does not obstruct the Hasse principle. Sufficient conditions for the triviality of the Brauer group are given, which allow us to give an example of a Kummer K3 surface of geometric Picard rank 17 over the rationals with trivial Brauer group. We establish the non-emptyness of the Brauer--Manin set of everywhere locally soluble Kummer varieties attached to 2-coverings of products of hyperelliptic Jacobians with larg…
We establish Grothendieck's section conjecture for an open subset of the Reichardt-Lind curve, and introduce the notion of a Brauer-Manin obstruction for sections of the fundamental group extension.
We are concerned with finding explicit generators of the Brauer group of diagonal cubic surfaces in terms of norm residue symbols, which was originally studied by Manin. We introduce the notion of uniform generators and find that the Brauer group of some classes of diagonal cubic surfaces have uniform generators. However, we also prove that the Brauer group of general diagonal cubic surfaces do not have such ones. This reveals that a result of Manin for certain diagonal cubic surfaces cannot be generalized in some sense.
We exhibit central simple algebras over the function field of a diagonal quartic surface over the complex numbers that represent the 2-torsion part of its Brauer group. We investigate whether the 2-primary part of the Brauer group of a diagonal quartic surface over a number field is algebraic and give sufficient conditions for this to be the case. In the last section we give an obstruction to weak approximation due to a transendental class on a specific diagonal quartic surface, an obstruction which cannot be explained by the algebraic Brauer group which in this case is just the constant algeb…
The Tate conjecture for divisors on varieties over number fields is equivalent to finiteness of $\ell$-primary torsion in the Brauer group. We show that this finiteness is actually uniform in one-dimensional families for varieties that satisfy the Tate conjecture for divisors -- e.g. abelian varieties and $K3$ surfaces.
Using the calculus of Steenrod operations in étale cohomology developed in [Feng17], we prove that the analogue of Tate's pairing on higher Brauer groups is alternating on 2-torsion. This improves upon a result of Jahn [Jahn15, Math. Annalen].
In this paper we introduce a method to obtain algebraic information using arithmetic one in the study of tori and their principal homogeneous spaces. In particular, using some results of the authors with Tingyu Lee, we determine the unramified Brauer groups of some norm one tori, and their torsors.
We give formulas for calculating the unramified Brauer group of a homogeneous space $X$ of a semisimple simply connected group $G$ with finite geometric stabilizer $\bar F$ over a wide family of fields of characteristic 0. When $k$ is a number field, we use these formulas in order to study the Brauer-Manin obstruction to the Hasse principle and weak approximation. We prove in particular that the Brauer-Manin pairing is constant on $X(k_v)$ for every $v$ outside from an explicit finite set of non archimedean places of $k$.
Let U be the complement of a smooth anticanonical divisor in a del Pezzo surface of degree at most 7 over a number field k. We show that there is an effective uniform bound for the size of the Brauer group of U in terms of the degree of k.
For a smooth proper variety over a $p$-adic field, the Brauer group and abelian fundamental group are related to the higher Chow groups by the Brauer-Manin pairing and the class field theory. We generalize this relation to smooth (possibly non-proper) varieties, using the motivic homology and the tame version of Wiesend's ideal class group. Several examples are discussed.
Let k be a field, G a finite group embedded in the k-group SL(n). For k an algebraically closed field, Bogomolov gave a formula for the unramified Brauer group of the quotient SL(n)/G. We develop his method over any characteristic zero field. This purely algebraic method enables us to recover and generalize results of Harari and of Demarche over number fields, such as the triviality of the unramified Brauer group for k=Q and G of odd order. --- Soient k un corps et G un groupe fini plongé dans le k-groupe SL(n).Pour k algébriquement clos, Bogomolov a donné une formule pour le groupe de Brauer …
A purity conjecture due to Grothendieck and Auslander--Goldman predicts that the Brauer group of a regular scheme does not change after removing a closed subscheme of codimension $\ge 2$. The combination of several works of Gabber settles the conjecture except for some cases that concern $p$-torsion Brauer classes in mixed characteristic $(0, p)$. We establish the remaining cases by using the tilting equivalence for perfectoid rings. To reduce to perfectoids, we control the change of the Brauer group of the punctured spectrum of a local ring when passing to a finite flat cover.
Let $X$ and $Y$ be smooth and projective varieties over a field $k$ finitely generated over $\mathbb Q$, and let $\ov X$ and $\ov Y$ be the varieties over an algebraic closure of $k$ obtained from $X$ and $Y$, respectively, by extension of the ground field. We show that the Galois invariant subgroup of $\Br(\ov X)\oplus \Br(\ov Y)$ has finite index in the Galois invariant subgroup of $\Br(\ov X\times\ov Y)$. This implies that the cokernel of the natural map $\Br(X)\oplus\Br(Y)\to\Br(X\times Y)$ is finite when $k$ is a number field. In this case we prove that the Brauer-Manin set of the product…
We explicitly construct a del Pezzo surface $X$ of degree 4 over a field $k$ such that $\operatorname{H}^1(k,\operatorname{Pic}\overline X)$ is isomorphic to $\mathbb{ZZ}/2\mathbb{Z}$ while $\operatorname{Br} X/\operatorname{Br} k$ is trivial. This proves that the algorithm to compute the Brauer group in [VAV] cannot be generalized in some cases.
A theorem of Serre states that almost all plane conics over $\mathbb{Q}$ have no rational point. We prove an analogue of this for families of conics parametrised by elliptic curves using elliptic divisibility sequences and a version of the Selberg sieve for elliptic curves. We also give more general results for specialisations of Brauer groups, which yields applications to norm form equations.
We show that Brauer classes of a locally solvable degree 4 del Pezzo surface X are vertical for some projection away from a plane f: X ---> P^1, i.e., that every Brauer class is obtained by pullback from an element of Br k(P^1). As a consequence, we prove that a Brauer class does not obstruct the existence of a rational point if and only if there exists a fiber of f that is locally solvable. The proof is constructive and gives a simple and practical algorithm, distinct from that in [BBFL07], for computing all classes in the Brauer group of X (modulo constant algebras).
We consider the problem of counting the number of rational points of bounded height in the zero-loci of Brauer group elements on semi-simple algebraic groups over number fields. We obtain asymptotic formulae for the counting problem for wonderful compactifications using the spectral theory of automorphic forms. Applications include asymptotic formulae for the number of matrices over Q whose determinant is a sum of two squares. These results provide a positive answer to some cases of a question of Serre concerning such counting problems.
