Del Pezzo surfaces of degree 6 over an arbitrary field (Q2268597)

A degree \(6\) del Pezzo surface \(S\) over an arbitrary field \(F\) is a smooth projective surface such that the anticanonical sheaf \(\omega_s^{-1}\) is ample and \(\omega_s^2=6\). These surfaces are known to be toric with two dimensional torus \(T\) the connected component of the identity of \(\text{Aut}_F(S)\). The first major theorem of this paper is a classification of degree \(6\) del Pezzo surfaces up to isomorphism preserving the action of the torus. The main theorem states that a degree \(6\) del Pezzo surface over \(F\) is determined by a pair \(B\) and \(Q\) of separable \(F\)-algebras with centers \(K\) and \(L\) étale quadratic and cubic over \(F\), respectively. An immediate corollary of this theorem is that \(S\) contains an \(F\)-rational point if and only if \(B\) and \(Q\) are split. The author also uses the algebras \(B\) and \(Q\) to compute the Quillen \(K\)-theory of the surface \(S\) and obtains an index reduction formula for the function field of \(S\).