This replacement has a more general theorem (thm 6.2) on Brauer groups of double covers of rational surfaces. Corrected some typos, updated references. To appear in Advances in Mathematics
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 describe the effect of rational singularities on the Brauer group of a surface, and compute the Brauer groups of all singular del Pezzo surfaces over an algebraically closed field.
We classify finite groups that can act by automorphisms and birational automorphisms on non-trivial Severi-Brauer surfaces over fields of characteristic zero.
We study Brauer-Severi surface bundles over smooth projective varieties via root stacks, with a view towards applications to failure of stable rationality.
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 Kuga-Satake correspondence we provide an effective algorithm for the computation of the Picard and Brauer groups of K3 surfaces of degree 2 over number fields.
We show that a quotient of a non-trivial Severi-Brauer surface $S$ over arbitrary field $\Bbbk$ of characteristic $0$ by a finite group $G \subset \operatorname{Aut}(S)$ is $\Bbbk$-rational, if and only if $|G|$ is divisible by $3$. Otherwise, the quotient is birationally equivalent to $S$.
We classify morphisms from proper varieties to Brauer-Severi varieties, which generalizes the classical correspondence between morphisms to projective space and globally generated invertible sheaves. As an application, we study del Pezzo surfaces of large degree with a view towards Brauer-Severi varieties, and recover classical results on rational points, the Hasse principle, and weak approximation.
We prove that a finite group acting by birational automorphisms of a non-trivial Severi-Brauer surface over a field of characteristic zero contains a normal abelian subgroup of index at most 3. Also, we find an explicit bound for orders of such finite groups in the case when the base field contains all roots of 1.
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.
Let S be a complex Enriques surface; it is the quotient of a K3 surface X by a fixed-point-free involution. The Brauer group Br(S) has a unique nonzero element. We describe its pull-back in Br(X), and show that the surfaces S for which it is trivial form a countable union of hypersurfaces in the moduli space of Enriques surfaces.
It is well-known that a Severi-Brauer surface has a rational point if and only if it is isomorphic to the projective plane. Given a Severi-Brauer surface, we study the problem to decide whether such an isomorphism to the projective plane, or such a rational point, does exist; and to construct such an isomorphism or such a point in the affirmative case. We give an algorithm using Lie algebra techniques. The algorithm has been implemented in Magma.
We provide explicit generators for the torsion of the second cohomology of bielliptic surfaces, and we use this to study pullback map between Brauer group of a bielliptic surface and that of its canonical cover.
Let $X$ be a Godeaux surface over $\mathbb{C}$ and $q_{X}\colon Y\to X$ be its universal cover. We show that the pullback map $q^{*}_{X}\colon Br(X)\to Br(Y)$ is injective if $ρ(Y)=9$. Our arguments rely on a degeneration technique that also applies to other examples.
We describe the Hodge theory of brilliant families of K3 surfaces. Their characteristic feature is a close link between the Hodge structures of any two fibres over points in the Noether-Lefschetz locus. Twistor deformations, the analytic Tate-Safarevic group, and one-dimensional Shimura special cycles are covered by the theory. In this setting, the Brauer group is viewed as the Noether-Lefschetz locus of the Brauer family or as the specialization of the Noether-Lefschetz loci in a family of approaching twistor spaces. Passing from one algebraic twistor fibre to another, which by construction i…
In this paper we consider the stratification on the moduli space of principally polarized abelian surfaces in characteristic $p>0$ defined by the height of the formal group associated to $H^2(X,O_X)$. We compute the cycle classes of the strata and compare these with those of the $p$-rank stratification.
Let $X$ be a smooth projective surface over an algebraically closed field $k$ such that $char(k) \neq 2$. Let $X^{[d]}$ denote the punctual Hilbert scheme of zero dimensional quotients of degree $d$ and $X^{(d)}$ denote the symmetric product of $X$. For $\ell \neq 2$, we give a formula for the $\ell$-primary part of the Brauer group of $X^{[2]}$. We show that the Hilbert to Chow morphism induces an isomorphism of cohomological Brauer groups for $d=2$ and a similar result for $d \geq 3$. Let $Q(r,d)$ denote the punctual Quot-scheme parametrising zero dimensional quotients of $\mathcal{O}_X^{ \o…
Let $\{P_i\}_{1 \leq i \leq r}$ and $\{Q_i\}_{1 \leq i \leq r}$ be two collections of Brauer Severi surfaces (resp. conics) over a field $k$. We show that the subgroup generated by the $P_i's$ in $Br(k)$ is the same as the subgroup generated by the $Q_i's$ \iff $ΠP_i $ is birational to $ΠQ_i$. Moreover in this case $ΠP_i$ and $ΠQ_i$ represent the same class in $M(k)$, the Grothendieck ring of $k$-varieties. The converse holds if $char(k)=0$. Some of the above implications also hold over a general noetherian base scheme.
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.
We study the geometry of exceptional loci of birational contractions of hyper-Kähler fourfolds that are of K3$^{[2]}$-type. These loci are conic bundles over K3 surfaces and we determine their classes in the Brauer group. For this we use the results on twisted sheaves on K3 surfaces, on contractions and on the corresponding Heegner divisors. For a general K3 surface of fixed degree there are three (T-equivalence) classes of order two Brauer group elements. The elements in exactly two of these classes are represented by conic bundles on such fourfolds. We also discuss various examples of such c…
We prove that every element of order 2 in the Brauer group of a complex Kummer surface X descends to an Enriques quotient of X. In 'generic' cases this gives a bijection between the set Enr(X) of Enriques quotients of X up to isomorphism and the set of Brauer classes of X of order 2. For some K3 surfaces of Picard rank 20 we prove that the fibres of the map from Enr(X) to Br(X)[2] above the non-zero points have the same order.
We prove that, on a sufficiently general diagonal quartic surface, there is a non-trivial Brauer group but no Brauer-Manin obstruction to the existence of rational points.
We construct families of log K3 surfaces and study the arithmetic of their members. We use this to produce explicit surfaces with an order 5 Brauer-Manin obstruction to the integral Hasse principle.
We construct a smooth and projective surface over an arbitrary number field that is a counterexample to the Hasse principle but has the infinite etale Brauer-Manin set. We also construct a surface with a unique rational point and the infinite etale Brauer-Manin set. The key new ingredient is the arithmetic of singular projective curves.
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.
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.
In 2011, Vàrilly-Alvarado and the last author constructed an Enriques surface $X$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ with an étale-Brauer obstruction to the Hasse principle and no algebraic Brauer-Manin obstruction. In this paper, we show that the nontrivial Brauer class of $X_{\bar{\mathbb{Q}}}$ does not descend to $\mathbb{Q}$. Together with the results of Vàrilly-Alvarado and the last author, this proves that the Brauer-Manin obstruction is insufficient to explain all failures of the Hasse principle on Enriques surfaces. The methods of this paper build on the ideas in several recent papers by the last autho…
We describe a method to compute the Brauer-Manin obstruction for smooth cubic surfaces over $\bbQ$ such that $\Br(S)/\Br(\bbQ)$ is a 3-group. Our approach is to associate a Brauer class with every ordered triplet of Galois invariant pairs of Steiner trihedra. We show that all order three Brauer classes may be obtained in this way. To show the effect of the obstruction, we give explicit examples.
We consider higher-dimensional analogues of the classical Brauer-Siegel theorem focusing on the case of abelian varieties over global function fields. We prove such an analogue in the case of constant families of elliptic curves and abelian varieties.
Unlike the classical Brauer group of a field, the Brauer-Grothendieck group of a singular scheme need not be torsion. We show that there exist integral normal projective surfaces over a large field of positive characteristic with non-torsion Brauer group. In contrast, we demonstrate that such examples cannot exist over the algebraic closure of a finite field.
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…
We examine the noncommutative minimal model program for orders on arithmetic surfaces, or equivalently, arithmetic surfaces enriched by a Brauer class $β$. When $β$ has prime index $p>5$, we show the classical theory extends with analogues of existence of terminal resolutions, Castelnuovo contraction and Zariski factorisation. We also classify $β$-terminal surfaces and Castelnuovo contractions, and discover new unexpected behaviour.
We describe a method to compute the Brauer-Manin obstruction for smooth cubic surfaces over $\bbQ$ such that $\Br(S)/\Br(\bbQ)$ is of order two or four. This covers the vast majority of the cases when this group is non-zero. Our approach is to associate a Brauer class with every Galois invariant double-six. We show that all order two Brauer classes may be obtained in this way. We also recover Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer's result that $\Br(S)/\Br(\bbQ)$ may take only five values.
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 …
Let $X$ be a cubic surface over a global field $k$. We prove that a Brauer-Manin obstruction to the existence of $k$-points on $X$ will persist over every extension $L/k$ with degree relatively prime to $3$. In other words, a cubic surface has nonempty Brauer set over $k$ if and only if it has nonempty Brauer set over some extension $L/k$ with $3\nmid[L:k]$. Therefore, the conjecture of Colliot-Thélène and Sansuc on the sufficiency of the Brauer-Manin obstruction for cubic surfaces implies that $X$ has a $k$-rational point if and only if $X$ has a $0$-cycle of degree $1$. This latter statement…
We show that for complex analytic K3 surfaces any torsion class in H^2(X,O_X^*) comes from an Azumaya algebra. In other words, the Brauer group equals the cohomological Brauer group. For algebraic surfaces, such results go back to Grothendieck. In our situation, we use twistor spaces to deform a given analytic K3 surface to suitable projective K3 surfaces, and then stable bundles and hyperholomorphy conditions to pass back and forth between the members of the twistor family.
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.
Ghosh and Sarnak have studied integral points on surfaces defined by an equation x^2+y^2+z^2-xyz= m over the integers. For these affine surfaces, we systematically study the Brauer group and the Brauer-Manin obstruction to the integral Hasse principle. We prove that strong approximation for integral points on any such surface, away from any finite set of places, fails, and that, for m\neq 0, 4, the Brauer group does not control strong approximation.
In a previous work, we introduced the notion of uniform generators of the Brauer group and proved that general diagonal cubic surfaces do not have such generators. In this paper, we prove that a similar non-existence result holds for affine diagonal quadrics.
This paper develops families of complex Enriques surfaces whose Brauer groups pull back identically to zero on the covering K3 surfaces. Our methods rely on isogenies with Kummer surfaces of product type. We offer both lattice theoretic and geometric constructions. We also sketch how the construction connects to string theory and Picard-Fuchs equations in the context of Enriques Calabi-Yau threefolds.
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.
