Brauer groups of singular del Pezzo surfaces (Q376677)

The main result of this paper is a result on the Brauer group of a surface having only rational singularities. Let \(k\) be an algebraically closed base field of any characteristic, let \(Y\) be a normal surface that has finitely many rational singularities. Then it is known that there exists a unique minimal desingularization \(f: X \to Y\). Let \(E\) be the subgroup of \(\mathrm{Pic}(X)\) generated by the classes of the exceptional curves. The main result (Proposition 1) of the paper gives an exact sequence relating \(E\), the Picard groups of \(X\) and \(Y\), and the Brauer groups of \(X\) and \(Y\). The key points of the proof are the Leray spectral sequence for \(f\), and the description of the Brauer group of the localization of \(f\) at the singular points. (This last is due to [\textit{J. Lipman}, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Ëtud. Sci. 36, 195--279 (1969; Zbl 0181.48903)].) The author then uses this result to compute the Brauer groups of singular del Pezzo surfaces. Since the desingularizations of these surfaces are rational, their Brauer groups are trivial; this fact simplifies the calculations. Theorem 6 enumerates all possible Brauer groups according to the degree of the singular del Pezzo surface.