Quotients of cubic surfaces (Q253177)

Let \(X\) be a smooth projective surface defined over a field \(k\). \(X\) is called \(k\)-rational if \(X\) is birational to \(\mathbb{P}^2_k\) and geometrically rational if \(X\otimes_k\bar{k}\) is \(\bar{k}\)-rational, where \(\bar{k}\) is the algebraic closure of \(k\). \(X\) is called a Del Pezzo surface if and only if \(-K_X\) is ample. The degree of a Del Pezzo surface \(X\) is defined to be \(K_X^2\) and it is well known that \(1 \leq K_X^2 \leq 9\). If \(k\) is algebraically closed then any Del Pezzo surface is \(k\)-rational. However this is not always true if \(k\) is not algebraically closed. Let \(X\) be a Del Pezzo surface of degree 3 defined over a field \(k\) of characteristic zero (hence \(X\) is isomorphic to a smooth cubic surface in \(\mathbb{P}^3_k\)). In this case it is known that \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) is finite. Let \(G \subset \mathrm{Aut}(X)\) be a subgroup of \(X\). Then \(G\) acts naturally on \(X\). Let \(\pi : X \rightarrow Y\) be the quotient. The paper under review studies when the quotient \(Y\) is \(k\)-rational. This is always true if \(k\) is algebraically closed but not always if \(k\) is not algebraically closed. The main result of this paper is that if \(X(k)\not= \emptyset\), \(G\) is not trivial and has order different than 3, and the fixed locus of the action of \(G\) on \(X\) is zero dimensional, then \(Y\) is \(k\)-rational. In the case when the order of \(G\) is 3, examples are given when the quotient \(Y\) is \(k\)-rational and examples when it is not \(k\)-rational. In order to prove the main theorem, the author uses the classification of the automorphism group of smooth cubic surfaces in order to show that for any subgroup \(G\) of \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\), there exists a normal subgroup \(N\) of \(G\) such that the quotient \(X/N\) is \(G/N\)-birationally equivalent to a smooth \(k\)-rational surface \(Z\) with \(K_Z^2 \geq 5\). The main result then follows from a previous unpublished, at the time of this writing, result of the author about quotients of rational surfaces with \(K^2\geq 5\) by a finite group of automorphisms.