Rationality of complete intersections of two quadrics over nonclosed fields (Q2077233)

The authors consider rationality question of intersections of two quadrics in \(\mathbb{P}^n\) for \(n \geqslant 5\) over fields that are not algebraically closed. It is known that an intersection of two quadrics is rational if it contains a line. The authors describe the explicit rationality constructions and describe relevant invariants concerning rationality. They also provide additional criteria for rationality. The authors then focus on a threefold case, that is \(n = 5\). Using the degeneration method the authors prove irrationality of some intersections of two quadrics, in particular they provide examples of a rational intersection of two quadrics without a line. Then they discuss the refinement of the Intermediate Jacobian method for non-closed field to prove that over \(\mathbb{R}\) the intersection of two quadrics is rational if and only if in contains a line.