Skip to main content

The Lüroth Problem

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Rationality Problems in Algebraic Geometry

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Mathematics ((LNMCIME,volume 2172))

Abstract

The Lüroth problem asks whether every unirational variety is rational. After a historical survey, we describe the methods developed in the 1970s to get a negative answer, and give some easy examples. Then we discuss a new method introduced last year by C. Voisin.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Fano proved in [F3] that the variety X 14 is birational to a smooth cubic threefold.

References

  1. A. Adler, On the automorphism group of a certain cubic threefold. Am. J. Math. 100 (6), 1275–1280 (1978)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. M. Artin, D. Mumford, Some elementary examples of unirational varieties which are not rational. Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 25, 75–95 (1972)

    Google Scholar 

  3. C. Araujo, Rationally connected varieties, in Snowbird Lectures in Algebraic Geometry. Contemporary Mathematics, vol. 388 (American Mathematical Society, Providence, 2005), pp. 1–16

    Google Scholar 

  4. A. Beauville, Variétés de Prym et jacobiennes intermédiaires. Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. 10, 309–391 (1977)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. A. Beauville, Les singularités du diviseur Θ de la jacobienne intermédiaire de l’hypersurface cubique dans P 4, in Algebraic Threefolds (Cime, Varenna, 1981). Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol. 947 (Springer, Berlin/New York, 1982), pp. 190–208

    Google Scholar 

  6. A. Beauville, Variétés rationnelles et unirationnelles, in Algebraic Geometry – Open Problems (Proc. Ravello 1982). Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol. 997 (Springer, Berlin, 1983), pp. 16–33

    Google Scholar 

  7. A. Beauville, Non-rationality of the symmetric sextic Fano threefold, in Geometry and Arithmetic. EMS Congress Reports (European Mathematical Society, Zürich, 2012), pp. 57–60

    Google Scholar 

  8. A. Beauville, Theta functions, old and new, in Open Problems and Surveys of Contemporary Mathematics. Surveys of Modern Mathematics, vol. 6 (Higher Education Press and International Press, Beijing/Boston, 2013), pp. 99–131

    Google Scholar 

  9. A. Beauville, Non-rationality of the \(\mathfrak{S}_{6}\)-symmetric quartic threefolds. Rend. Sem. Mat. Univ. Politec. Torino 71 (3–4), 385–388 (2013)

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. A. Beauville, A very general sextic double solid is not stably rational. Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 48 (2), 321–324 (2016)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. C. Böhning, H.-C. Graf von Bothmer, J. Kröker, Rationality of moduli spaces of plane curves of small degree. Exp. Math. 18 (4), 499–508 (2009)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. A. Beauville, J.-L. Colliot-Thélène, J.-J. Sansuc, P. Swinnerton-Dyer, Variétés stablement rationnelles non rationnelles. Ann. Math. 121, 283–318 (1985)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. C. Birkenhake, H. Lange, Complex Abelian Varieties. Grund. der Math. Wiss., vol. 302 (Springer, Berlin, 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  14. S. Bloch, On an argument of mumford in the theory of algebraic cycles, in Journées de Géometrie Algébrique d’Angers (Sijthoff & Noordhoff, Alphen aan den Rijn, 1980), pp. 217–221

    Google Scholar 

  15. F. Bogomolov, The Brauer group of quotient spaces of linear representations. Math. USSR-Izv. 30 (3), 455–485 (1988)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. S. Bloch, V. Srinivas, Remarks on correspondences and algebraic cycles. Am. J. Math. 105 (5), 1235–1253 (1983)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. J.-L. Colliot-Thélène, Birational invariants, purity and the Gersten conjecture, in K-Theory and Algebraic Geometry. Proceedings of Symposia in Pure Mathematics, vol. 58, Part 1 (American Mathematical Society, Providence, 1995), pp. 1–64

    Google Scholar 

  18. H. Clemens, P. Griffiths, The intermediate Jacobian of the cubic threefold. Ann. Math. (2) 95, 281–356 (1972)

    Google Scholar 

  19. I. Cheltsov, Birationally rigid Fano varieties. Russ. Math. Surv. 60 (5), 875–965 (2005)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. F. Cossec, Reye congruences. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 280 (2), 737–751 (1983)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  21. J.-L. Colliot-Thélène, M. Ojanguren, Variétés unirationnelles non rationnelles: au-delà de l’exemple d’Artin et Mumford. Invent. Math. 97 (1), 141–158 (1989)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  22. J.-L. Colliot-Thélène, A. Pirutka, Hypersurfaces quartiques de dimension 3: non rationalité stable. Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. 49 (2), 373–399 (2016)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. J.-L. Colliot-Thélène, A. Pirutka, Revêtements cycliques qui ne sont pas stablement rationnels (in Russian). Izvestiya RAN, Ser. Math. 80 (4), 35–47 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  24. J.-L. Colliot-Thélène, J.-J. Sansuc, The rationality problem for fields of invariants under linear algebraic groups (with special regards to the Brauer group), in Algebraic Groups and Homogeneous Spaces. TIFR Stud. Math., vol. 19 (TIFR, Mumbai, 2007), pp. 113–186

    Google Scholar 

  25. I. Dolgachev, Rationality of fields of invariants, in Algebraic Geometry, Bowdoin, 1985. Proceedings of Symposia in Pure Mathematics, vol. 46, Part 2 (American Mathematical Society, Providence, 1987), pp. 3–16

    Google Scholar 

  26. T. de Fernex, Birationally rigid hypersurfaces. Invent. Math. 192 (3), 533–566 (2013)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  27. F. Enriques, Sopra una involuzione non razionale dello spazio. Rend. Accad. Lincei (5a) 21, 81–83 (1912)

    Google Scholar 

  28. G. Fano, Sopra alcune varietà algebriche a tre dimensioni aventi tutti i generi nulli. Atti R. Accad. Sci. Torino 43, 973–984 (1908)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  29. G. Fano, Osservazioni su alcune varietà non razionali aventi tutti i generi nulli. Atti R. Accad. Sci. Torino 50, 1067–1072 (1915)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  30. G. Fano, Sulle sezioni spaziali della varietà grassmanniana delle rette dello spazio a cinque dimensioni. Rend. Accad. Naz. Lincei (6) 11, 329–335 (1930)

    Google Scholar 

  31. G. Fano, Nuove ricerche sulle varietà algebriche a tre dimensioni a curve-sezioni canoniche. Comm. Pont. Acad. Sci. 11, 635–720 (1947)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  32. W. Fulton, Intersection theory, in Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete, vol. 2(3) (Springer, Berlin, 1984)

    Google Scholar 

  33. A. Grothendieck, Le groupe de Brauer I, II, III, in Dix Exposés sur la Cohomologie des Schémas (North-Holland, Amsterdam; Masson, Paris, 1968)

    Google Scholar 

  34. M. Gross, S. Popescu, The moduli space of (1, 11)-polarized abelian surfaces is unirational. Compos. Math. 126 (1), 1–23 (2001)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  35. M.M. Grinenko, Mori structures on a Fano threefold of index 2 and degree 1. Proc. Steklov Inst. Math. 246, 103–128 (2004)

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  36. B. Hassett, A. Kresch, Y. Tschinkel, Stable rationality and conic bundles. Math. Ann. 365 (3–4), 1201–1217 (2016)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  37. B. Hassett, Y. Tschinkel, On stable rationality of Fano threefolds and del Pezzo fibrations (2016). Preprint arXiv:1601.07074

    Google Scholar 

  38. V. Iskovskikh, Fano threefolds, I and II. Math. USSR Izv. 11, 485–527 (1977); 12, 469–506 (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  39. V. Iskovskikh, Y. Manin, Three-dimensional quartics and counterexamples to the Lüroth problem. Math. USSR-Sb. 15, 141–166 (1971)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  40. J. Kollár, Nonrational hypersurfaces. J. Am. Math. Soc. 8 (1), 241–249 (1995)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  41. J. Lüroth, Beweis eines Satzes über rationale Curven. Math. Ann. 9, 163–165 (1876)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  42. D. Mumford, Abelian Varieties (Oxford University Press, London, 1970)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  43. A. Pukhlikov, Birationally rigid varieties. I. Fano varieties. Russ. Math. Surv. 62 (5), 857–942 (2007)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  44. L. Roth, Algebraic threefolds, with special regard to problems of rationality, in Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete, vol. 6 (Springer, Berlin/Göttingen/Heidelberg, 1955)

    Google Scholar 

  45. J.-P. Serre, On the fundamental group of a unirational variety. J. Lond. Math. Soc. 34, 481–484 (1959)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  46. D. Saltman, Noether’s problem over an algebraically closed field. Invent. Math. 77 (1), 71–84 (1984)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  47. N. Shepherd-Barron, Stably rational irrational varieties, in The Fano Conference (University of Turin, Turin, 2004), pp. 693–700

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  48. B. Segre, Sur un problème de M. Zariski, in Colloque international d’algèbre et de théorie des nombres (Paris 1949) (CNRS, Paris, 1950), pp. 135–138

    Google Scholar 

  49. B. Segre, Variazione continua ed omotopia in geometria algebrica. Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 50, 149–186 (1960)

    Google Scholar 

  50. B. Totaro, Hypersurfaces that are not stably rational. J. Am. Math. Soc. 29, 883–891 (2016)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  51. C. Voisin, Sur la jacobienne intermédiaire du double solide d’indice deux. Duke Math. J. 57 (2), 629–646 (1988)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  52. C. Voisin, Hodge Theory and Complex Algebraic Geometry I, II (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2002–2003)

    Google Scholar 

  53. C. Voisin, Abel-Jacobi map, integral Hodge classes and decomposition of the diagonal. J. Algebr. Geom. 22 (1), 141–174 (2013)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  54. C. Voisin, Unirational threefolds with no universal codimension 2 cycle. Invent. math. 201 (1), 207–237 (2015)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  55. C. Voisin, On the universal CH 0 group of cubic hypersurfaces. Preprint arXiv:1407.7261. J. Eur. Math. Soc. (to appear)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arnaud Beauville .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Beauville, A. (2016). The Lüroth Problem. In: Pardini, R., Pirola, G. (eds) Rationality Problems in Algebraic Geometry. Lecture Notes in Mathematics(), vol 2172. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46209-7_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics