We show that a very general hypersurface of degree $d \geq 4$ and dimension $N \leq (d+1)2^{d-4}$ over a field of characteristic $\neq 2$ does not admit a decomposition of the diagonal; hence, it is neither stably nor retract rational, nor $\mathbb {A}^1$-connected. Similar results hold in characteristic $2$ under a slightly weaker degree bound. This improves earlier results in [44] and [33].

Let S and T be smooth projective varieties over an algebraically closed field k. Suppose that S is a surface admitting a decomposition of the diagonal. We show that, away from the characteristic of k, if an algebraic correspondence $T \to S$ acts trivially on the unramified cohomology, then it acts trivially on any normalized, birational and motivic functor. This generalizes Kahn’s result on the torsion order of S. We also exhibit an example of S over $\mathbb {C}$ for which $S \times S$ violates the integral Hodge conjecture.

We study the rationality properties of the moduli space ${\mathcal{A}}_g$ of principally polarised abelian $g$-folds over $\mathbb{Q}$ and apply the results to arithmetic questions. In particular, we show that any principally polarised abelian 3-fold over ${\mathbb{F}}_p$ may be lifted to an abelian variety over $\mathbb{Q}$. This is a phenomenon of low dimension: assuming the Bombieri–Lang conjecture, we also show that this is not the case for abelian varieties of dimension at least 7. Concerning moduli spaces, we show that ${\mathcal{A}}_g$ is unirational over $\mathbb{Q}$ for $g\le 5$ and stably rational for $g=3$. This also allows us to make unconditional one of the results of Masser and Zannier about the existence of abelian varieties over $\mathbb{Q}$ that are not isogenous to Jacobians.

Let $X_4\subset \mathbb {P}^{n+1}$ be a quartic hypersurface of dimension $n\geq 4$ over an infinite field k. We show that if either $X_4$ contains a linear subspace $\Lambda $ of dimension $h\geq \max \{2,\dim (\Lambda \cap \operatorname {\mathrm {Sing}}(X_4))+2\}$ or has double points along a linear subspace of dimension $h\geq 3$, a smooth k-rational point and is otherwise general, then $X_4$ is unirational over k. This improves previous results by A. Predonzan and J. Harris, B. Mazur and R. Pandharipande for quartics. We also provide a density result for the k-rational points of quartic $3$-folds with a double plane over a number field, and several unirationality results for quintic hypersurfaces over a $C_r$ field.

A famous problem in birational geometry is to determine when the birational automorphism group of a Fano variety is finite. The Noether–Fano method has been the main approach to this problem. The purpose of this paper is to give a new approach to the problem by showing that in every positive characteristic, there are Fano varieties of arbitrarily large index with finite (or even trivial) birational automorphism group. To do this, we prove that these varieties admit ample and birationally equivariant line bundles. Our result applies the differential forms that Kollár produces on $p$-cyclic covers in characteristic $p > 0$.

Let X be a smooth proper variety over a field k and suppose that the degree map ${\mathrm {CH}}_0(X \otimes _k K) \to \mathbb {Z}$ is isomorphic for any field extension $K/k$. We show that $G(\operatorname {Spec} k) \to G(X)$ is an isomorphism for any $\mathbb {P}^1$-invariant Nisnevich sheaf with transfers G. This generalises a result of Binda, Rülling and Saito that proves the same conclusion for reciprocity sheaves. We also give a direct proof of the fact that the unramified logarithmic Hodge–Witt cohomology is a $\mathbb {P}^1$-invariant Nisnevich sheaf with transfers.

We study smoothing of pencils of curves on surfaces with normal crossings. As a consequence we show that the canonical divisor of $\overline {\mathcal {M}}_{g,n}$ is not pseudoeffective in some range, implying that $\overline {\mathcal {M}}_{12,6}$, $\overline {\mathcal {M}}_{12,7}$, $\overline {\mathcal {M}}_{13,4}$ and $\overline {\mathcal {M}}_{14,3}$ are uniruled. We provide upper bounds for the Kodaira dimension of $\overline {\mathcal {M}}_{12,8}$ and $\overline {\mathcal {M}}_{16}$. We also show that the moduli space of $(4g+5)$-pointed hyperelliptic curves $\overline {\mathcal {H}}_{g,4g+5}$ is uniruled. Together with a recent result of Schwarz, this concludes the classification of moduli of pointed hyperelliptic curves with negative Kodaira dimension.

Building on work of Segre and Kollár on cubic hypersurfaces, we construct over imperfect fields of characteristic $p\geq 3$ particular hypersurfaces of degree p, which show that geometrically rational schemes that are regular and whose rational points are Zariski dense are not necessarily unirational. A likewise behavior holds for certain cubic surfaces in characteristic $p=2$.

We prove that the moduli space of smooth primitively polarized $\text{K3}$ surfaces of genus 33 is unirational.

We show that the generic fiber of a family $f:X\rightarrow S$ of smooth $\mathbb{A}^{1}$ -ruled affine surfaces always carries an $\mathbb{A}^{1}$ -fibration, possibly after a finite extension of the base $S$ . In the particular case where the general fibers of the family are irrational surfaces, we establish that up to shrinking $S$ , such a family actually factors through an $\mathbb{A}^{1}$ -fibration $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}:X\rightarrow Y$ over a certain $S$ -scheme $Y\rightarrow S$ induced by the MRC-fibration of a relative smooth projective model of $X$ over $S$ . For affine threefolds $X$ equipped with a fibration $f:X\rightarrow B$ by irrational $\mathbb{A}^{1}$ -ruled surfaces over a smooth curve $B$ , the induced $\mathbb{A}^{1}$ -fibration $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}:X\rightarrow Y$ can also be recovered from a relative minimal model program applied to a smooth projective model of $X$ over $B$ .

We show how the techniques of Voevodsky’s proof of the Milnor conjecture and the Voevodsky–Rost proof of its generalization the Bloch–Kato conjecture can be used to study counterexamples to the classical Lüroth problem. By generalizing a method due to Peyre, we produce for any prime number $\ell $ and any integer $n\geq 2$, a rationally connected, non-rational variety for which non-rationality is detected by a non-trivial degree $n$ unramified étale cohomology class with $\ell $-torsion coefficients. When $\ell = 2$, the varieties that are constructed are furthermore unirational and non-rationality cannot be detected by a torsion unramified étale cohomology class of lower degree.

Let K be a perfect field of characteristic p > 0; A1 := K〈x, ∂|∂x−x∂=1〉 be the first Weyl algebra; and Z:=K[X:=xp, Y:=∂p] be its centre. It is proved that (i) the restriction map res : AutK(A1)→ AutK(Z), σ ↦ σ|Z is a monomorphism with im(res) = Γ := {τ ∈ AutK(Z)|(τ)=1}, where (τ) is the Jacobian of τ, (Note that AutK(Z)=K* ⋉ Γ, and if K is not perfect then im(res) ≠ Γ.); (ii) the bijection res : AutK(A1) → Γ is a monomorphism of infinite dimensional algebraic groups which is not an isomorphism (even if K is algebraically closed); (iii) an explicit formula for res−1 is found via differential operators (Z) on Z and negative powers of the Fronenius map F. Proofs are based on the following (non-obvious) equality proved in the paper:

We compute the equation of the 7-secant variety to the Veronese variety (P4,O(3)), its degree is 15. This is the last missing invariant in the Alexander-Hirschowitz classification. It gives the condition to express a homogeneous cubic polynomial in 5 variables as the sum of 7 cubes (Waring problem). The interesting side in the construction is that it comes from the determinant of a matrix of order 45 with linear entries, which is a cube. The same technique allows to express the classical Aronhold invariant of plane cubics as a pfaffian.

We characterize the tight closure of a homogeneous primary ideal in a normal homogeneous coordinate ring over an elliptic curve by a numerical condition and we show that it is in positive characteristic the same as the plus closure.

We formulate a generalization of K. Takeuchi’s method to classify smooth Fano 3-folds and use it to give a list of numerical possibilities of ℚ-Fano 3-folds X with Pic X = ℤ(−2KX ) and h 0(−KX ) ≥ 4 containing index 2 points P such that (X, P) ≃ ({xy + z 2 + u a = 0}/ℤ2(1, 1, 1, 0), o) for some a ∈ ℕ. In particular we prove that then (–KX )3 ≤ 15 and h 0(–KX ) ≤ 10. Moreover we show that such an X is birational to a simpler Mori fiber space.

In the previous paper, we obtained a list of numerical possibilities of ℚ-Fano 3-folds X with Pic X = ℤ(−2KX ) and h 0(−KX ) ≥ 4 containing index 2 points P such that (X, P) ≃ ({xy + z 2 + u a = 0}/ℤ2(1, 1, 1, 0), o) for some a ∈ ℕ. Moreover we showed that such an X is birational to a simpler Mori fiber space. In this paper, we prove their existence except for a few cases by constructing a Mori fiber space with desired properties and reconstructing X from it.