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Asher Auel

Publications and source records attributed to Asher Auel.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2017

Stable rationality of quadric and cubic surface bundle fourfolds

We study the stable rationality problem for quadric and cubic surface bundles over surfaces from the point of view of the degeneration method for the Chow group of 0-cycles. Our main result is that a very general hypersurface X of bidegree (2,3) in P^2 x P^3 is not stably rational. Via projections onto the two factors, X is a cubic surface bundle over P^2 and a conic bundle over P^3, and we analyze the stable rationality problem from both these points of view. This provides another example of a smooth family of rationally connected fourfolds with rational and nonrational fibers. Finally, we introduce new quadric surface bundle fourfolds over P^2 with discriminant curve of any even degree at least 8, having nontrivial unramified Brauer group and admitting a universally CH_0-trivial resolution.

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arXiv2016

Cycles, derived categories, and rationality

Our main goal is to give a sense of recent developments in the (stable) rationality problem from the point of view of unramified cohomology and 0-cycles as well as derived categories and semiorthogonal decompositions, and how these perspectives intertwine and reflect each other. In particular, in the case of algebraic surfaces, we explain the relationship between Bloch's conjecture, Chow-theoretic decompositions of the diagonal, categorical representability, and the existence of phantom subcategories of the derived category.

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arXiv2016

Conic bundles with nontrivial unramified Brauer group over threefolds

We derive a formula for the unramified Brauer group of a general class of rationally connected fourfolds birational to conic bundles over smooth threefolds. We produce new examples of conic bundles over P^3 where this formula applies and which have nontrivial unramified Brauer group. The construction uses the theory of contact surfaces and, at least implicitly, matrix factorizations and symmetric arithmetic Cohen--Macaulay sheaves, as well as the geometry of special arrangements of rational curves in P^2. We also prove the existence of universally CH_0-trivial resolutions for the general class of conic bundle fourfolds we consider. Using the degeneration method, we thus produce new families of rationally connected fourfolds whose very general member is not stably rational.

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arXiv2015

Semiorthogonal decompositions and birational geometry of del Pezzo surfaces over arbitrary fields

We study the birational properties of geometrically rational surfaces from a derived categorical point of view. In particular, we give a criterion for the rationality of a del Pezzo surface over an arbitrary field, namely, that its derived category decomposes into zero-dimensional components. For del Pezzo surfaces of degree at least 5, we construct explicit semiorthogonal decompositions by subcategories of modules over semisimple algebras arising as endomorphism algebras of vector bundles and we show how to retrieve information about the index of the surface from Brauer classes and Chern classes associated to these vector bundles.

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arXiv2015

Surjectivity of the total Clifford invariant and Brauer dimension

Merkurjev's theorem--the statement that the 2-torsion of the Brauer group is represented by Clifford algebras of quadratic forms--is in general false when the base is no longer a field. The work of Parimala, Scharlau, and Sridharan proves the existence of smooth complete curves over local fields, over which Merkurjev's theorem is equivalent to the existence of a rational theta characteristic. Here, we prove that for smooth curves over a local field or surfaces over a finite field, replacing the Witt group by the total Witt group of all line bundle-valued quadratic forms recovers Merkurjev's theorem: the 2-torsion of the Brauer group is always represented by even Clifford algebras of line bundle-valued quadratic forms.

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arXiv2014

Cubic fourfolds containing a plane and a quintic del Pezzo surface

We isolate a class of smooth rational cubic fourfolds X containing a plane whose associated quadric surface bundle does not have a rational section. This is equivalent to the nontriviality of the Brauer class of the even Clifford algebra over the K3 surface S of degree 2 arising from X. Specifically, we show that in the moduli space of cubic fourfolds, the intersection of divisors C_8 and C_14 has five irreducible components. In the component corresponding to the existence of a tangent conic to the sextic degeneration curve of the quadric bundle, we prove that the general member is both pfaffian and has nontrivial Brauer class. Such cubic fourfolds also provide twisted derived equivalences between K3 surfaces of degree 2 and 14, hence further corroboration of Kuznetsov's derived categorical conjecture on the rationality of cubic fourfolds.

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arXiv2013

Fibrations in complete intersections of quadrics, Clifford algebras, derived categories, and rationality problems

Let X -> Y be a fibration whose fibers are complete intersections of two quadrics. We develop new categorical and algebraic tools---a theory of relative homological projective duality and the Morita invariance of the even Clifford algebra under quadric reduction by hyperbolic splitting---to study semiorthogonal decompositions of the bounded derived category of X. Together with new results in the theory of quadratic forms, we apply these tools in the case where X -> Y has relative dimension 1, 2, or 3, in which case the fibers are curves of genus 1, Del Pezzo surfaces of degree 4, or Fano threefolds, respectively. In the latter two cases, if Y is the projective line over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, we relate rationality questions to categorical representability of X.

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arXiv2013

The transcendental lattice of the sextic Fermat surface

We prove that the integral polarized Hodge structure on the transcendental lattice of a sextic Fermat surface is decomposable. This disproves a conjecture of Kulikov related to a Hodge theoretic approach to proving the irrationality of the very general cubic fourfold.

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arXiv2012

Vector bundles of rank four and A_3 = D_3

Over a scheme with 2 invertible, we show that a vector bundle of rank four has a sub or quotient line bundle if and only if the canonical symmetric bilinear form on its exterior square has a lagrangian subspace. For this, we exploit a version of "Pascal's rule" for vector bundles that provides an explicit isomorphism between the moduli functors represented by projective homogeneous bundles for reductive group schemes of type A_3 and D_3. Under additional hypotheses on the scheme (e.g. proper over a field), we show that the existence of sub or quotient line bundles of a rank four vector bundle is equivalent to the vanishing of its Witt-theoretic Euler class.

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arXiv2012

Quadric surface bundles over surfaces

Let T -> S be a finite flat morphism of degree two between regular integral schemes of dimension at most two (and with 2 invertible), having regular branch divisor D. We establish a bijection between Azumaya quaternion algebras on T and quadric surface bundles over S with simple degeneration along D. This is a manifestation of the exceptional isomorphism A_1^2 = D_2 degenerating to the exceptional isomorphism A_1 = B_1. In one direction, the even Clifford algebra yields the map. In the other direction, we show that the classical algebra norm functor can be uniquely extended over the discriminant divisor. Along the way, we study the orthogonal group schemes, which are smooth yet nonreductive, of quadratic forms with simple degeneration. Finally, we provide two surprising applications: constructing counter-examples to the local-global principle for isotropy, with respect to discrete valuations, of quadratic forms over surfaces; and a new proof of the global Torelli theorem for very general cubic fourfolds containing a plane.

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arXiv2012

Exceptional collections of line bundles on projective homogeneous varieties

We construct new examples of exceptional collections of line bundles on the variety of Borel subgroups of a split semisimple linear algebraic group G of rank 2 over a field. We exhibit exceptional collections of the expected length for types A_2 and B_2=C_2 and prove that no such collection exists for type G_2. This settles the question of the existence of full exceptional collections of line bundles on projective homogeneous G-varieties for split linear algebraic groups G of rank at most 2.

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arXiv2011

Remarks on the Milnor conjecture over schemes

The Milnor conjecture has been a driving force in the theory of quadratic forms over fields, guiding the development of the theory of cohomological invariants, ushering in the theory of motivic cohomology, and touching on questions ranging from sums of squares to the structure of absolute Galois groups. Here, we survey some recent work on generalizations of the Milnor conjecture to the context of schemes (mostly smooth varieties over fields of characteristic not 2). Surprisingly, a version of the Milnor conjecture fails to hold for certain smooth complete p-adic curves with no rational theta characteristic (this is the work of Parimala, Scharlau, and Sridharan). We explain how these examples fit into the larger context of an unramified Milnor question, offer a new approach to the question, and discuss new results in the case of curves over local fields and surfaces over finite fields.

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arXiv2010

Open Problems on Central Simple Algebras

We provide a survey of past research and a list of open problems regarding central simple algebras and the Brauer group over a field, intended both for experts and for beginners.

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