Failures of weak approximation in families

DOI10.1112/S0010437X16007405MaRDI QIDQ2816797zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors M. J. Bright, T. D. Browning, D. Loughran

Publication date 25 August 2016

Published in Compositio Mathematica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.01817

almost-all Brauer-Manin obstruction families of varieties fibration rational points weak approximation

Cubic and quartic Diophantine equations (11D25) Varieties over global fields (11G35) Arithmetic ground fields (finite, local, global) and families or fibrations (14D10) Rational points (14G05) Global ground fields in algebraic geometry (14G25)

Abstract: Given a family of varieties

X o m a t h b b P^{n}

over a number field

k

, we determine conditions under which there is a Brauer-Manin obstruction to weak approximation for

100 %

of the fibres which are everywhere locally soluble.

Review text

It follows from a conjecture of \textit{J.-L. Colliot-Thélène} [Bolyai Soc. Math. Stud. 12, 171--221 (2003; Zbl 1077.14029)] that if a smooth projective geometrically integral variety \(X\) over a number field \(k\) is geometrically rationally connected, with Br \(X/\)Br \(k=0\), then it satisfies the Hasse principle and weak approximation. In contrast, this paper gives a large class of varieties which ``almost-always fail to satisfy weak approximation.NEWLINENEWLINETo be specific, let \(k\) be a number field and let \(\pi:X\rightarrow\mathbb{P}^n\) be a flat surjective \(k\)-morphism of finite type, with \(X\) smooth, projective and geometrically integral over \(k\). Then the varieties considered are the fibres \(\pi^{-1}(P)\) for \(P\in \mathbb{P}^n(k)\cap\pi(X(\mathbb{A}_k))\). Subject to a list of 7 conditions, it is shown that for 100\ variety \(X_P\) is smooth, but fails weak approximation. Indeed a positive proportion asymptotically of these varieties have adèlic points, but the proportion with rational points is 0\NEWLINENEWLINEAs a nice example the paper considers diagonal cubic surfaces, NEWLINE\[NEWLINEa_0X_0^3+a_1X_1^3+a_2X_2^3+a_3X_3^3=0.NEWLINE\]NEWLINE For these a positive proportion, around 86\ but it is shown that a vanishingly small proportion have rational points. (In contrast, the conjecture mentioned above would imply that the Hasse principle and weak approximation should hold for almost all general cubic surfaces with an adèlic point.) A similar result is obtained for diagonal quartic surfaces.

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