On exceptional sets in Manin's conjecture (Q2319866)

The paper under review is a survey about recent progress on Manin's conjecture. Manin's conjecture predicts an asymptotic formula for rational points on smooth projective geometrically rationally connected algebraic varieties defined over number fields. It states roughly that outside a relatively small exceptional subset of rational points, the number of rational points of bounded height (as the bound $B$ tends to $+\infty$) has an asymtotic formula of the form $cB^a\log(B)^{b-1}$, where the constants $a, b, c$ depend on the variety (and other factors). The paper gives an introduction to the constants $a$ and $b$. Then it gives a precise description of the exceptional set proposed in the previous work of the authors and their collaborator \textit{A. K. Sengupta} [``Geometric consistency of Manin's conjecture'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1805.10580}], and explains the construction of a thin set containing the exceptional set. Many examples are discussed, and some of them are new. Several open questions are raised in the last section. The paper is a clear introductory survey of results on the exceptional set of Manin's conjecture, it contains many examples. I think it will be useful to anyone who is not familiar with the conjecture and who wishes to get acquainted with the most up-to-date results.