Let X be a smooth and projective complex algebraic variety. Several notions, describing how close X is to projective space, have been developed: X is rational if an open subset of X is isomorphic to an open of a projective space, X is stably rational if this property holds for a product of X with some projective space, and X is unirational if X is rationally dominated by a projective space. A classical Lüroth problem is to find unirational nonrational varieties. This problem remained open till 1970th, when three types of such examples were produced: cubic threefolds (Clemens and Griffiths), some quartic threefolds (Iskovskikh and Manin), and some conic bundles (Artin et Mumford). The last examples are even not stably rational. The stable rationality of the first two examples was not known.
In a recent work C. Voisin established that a double solid ramified along a very general quartic is not stably rational. Inspired by this work, we showed that many quartic solids are not stably rational (joint work with J.-L. Colliot-Thélène). More generally, B. Totaro showed that a very general hypersurface of degree d is not stably rational if d/2 is at least the smallest integer not smaller than (n+2)/3. The same method allowed us to show that the rationality is not a deformation invariant (joint with B. Hassett and Y. Tschinkel).
In this series of lectures, we will discuss the methods to obtain the results above: the universal properties of the Chow group of zero-cycles, the decomposition of the diagonal, and the specialization arguments.[-]

Let X be a smooth and projective complex algebraic variety. Several notions, describing how close X is to projective space, have been developed: X is rational if an open subset of X is isomorphic to an open of a projective space, X is stably rational if this property holds for a product of X with some projective space, and X is unirational if X is rationally dominated by a projective space. A classical Lüroth problem is to find unirational nonrational varieties. This problem remained open till 1970th, when three types of such examples were produced: cubic threefolds (Clemens and Griffiths), some quartic threefolds (Iskovskikh and Manin), and some conic bundles (Artin et Mumford). The last examples are even not stably rational. The stable rationality of the first two examples was not known.
In a recent work C. Voisin established that a double solid ramified along a very general quartic is not stably rational. Inspired by this work, we showed that many quartic solids are not stably rational (joint work with J.-L. Colliot-Thélène). More generally, B. Totaro showed that a very general hypersurface of degree d is not stably rational if d/2 is at least the smallest integer not smaller than (n+2)/3. The same method allowed us to show that the rationality is not a deformation invariant (joint with B. Hassett and Y. Tschinkel).
In this series of lectures, we will discuss the methods to obtain the results above: the universal properties of the Chow group of zero-cycles, the decomposition of the diagonal, and the specialization arguments.[-]

In the 80's Beauville generalized several foundational results of Nikulin on automorphism groups of K3 surfaces to hyperkähler manifolds. Since then the study of automorphism groups of hyperkähler manifolds and in particular of hyperkähler fourfolds got very much attention. I will present some classification results for automorphisms on hyperkähler fourfolds that are deformation equivalent to the Hilbert scheme of two points on a K3 surface and describe some explicit examples. I will give particular attention to double EPW sextics, that admit in a natural way a non-symplectic involution. Time permitting I will show how the rich geometry of double EPW sextics has an important connection to a classical question of U. Morin (1930).[-]

In the 80's Beauville generalized several foundational results of Nikulin on automorphism groups of K3 surfaces to hyperkähler manifolds. Since then the study of automorphism groups of hyperkähler manifolds and in particular of hyperkähler fourfolds got very much attention. I will present some classification results for automorphisms on hyperkähler fourfolds that are deformation equivalent to the Hilbert scheme of two points on a K3 surface and describe some explicit examples. I will give particular attention to double EPW sextics, that admit in a natural way a non-symplectic involution. Time permitting I will show how the rich geometry of double EPW sextics has an important connection to a classical question of U. Morin (1930).[-]

Let $X$ be a projective variety over a field $k$. Chow groups are defined as the quotient of a free group generated by irreducible subvarieties (of fixed dimension) by some equivalence relation (called rational equivalence). These groups carry many information on $X$ but are in general very difficult to study. On the other hand, one can associate to $X$ several cohomology groups which are "linear" objects and hence are rather simple to understand. One then construct maps called "cycle class maps" from Chow groups to several cohomological theories.
In this talk, we focus on the case of a variety $X$ over a finite field. In this case, Tate conjecture claims the surjectivity of the cycle class map with rational coefficients; this conjecture is still widely open. In case of integral coefficients, we speak about the integral version of the conjecture and we know several counterexamples for the surjectivity. In this talk, we present a survey of some well-known results on this subject and discuss other properties of algebraic cycles which are either proved or expected to be true. We also discuss several involved methods.[-]

In the 80's Beauville generalized several foundational results of Nikulin on automorphism groups of K3 surfaces to hyperkähler manifolds. Since then the study of automorphism groups of hyperkähler manifolds and in particular of hyperkähler fourfolds got very much attention. I will present some classification results for automorphisms on hyperkähler fourfolds that are deformation equivalent to the Hilbert scheme of two points on a K3 surface and describe some explicit examples. I will give particular attention to double EPW sextics, that admit in a natural way a non-symplectic involution. Time permitting I will show how the rich geometry of double EPW sextics has an important connection to a classical question of U. Morin (1930).[-]

An entire curve on a complex variety is a holomorphic map from the complex numbers to the variety. We discuss two well-known conjectures on entire curves on very general high-degree hypersurfaces $X$ in $\mathbb{P}^n$: the Green–Griffiths–Lang Conjecture, which says that the entire curves lie in a proper subvariety of $X$, and the Kobayashi Conjecture, which says that X contains no entire curves.
We prove that (a slightly strengthened version of) the Green–Griffiths–Lang Conjecture in dimension $2n$ implies the Kobayashi Conjecture in dimension $n$. The technique has already led to improved bounds for the Kobayashi Conjecture. This is joint work with David Yang.[-]