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We describe a normal form for a smooth intersection of two quadrics in even-dimensional projective space over an arbitrary field of characteristic 2. We use this to obtain a description of the automorphism group of such a variety. As an application, we show that every quartic del Pezzo surface over a perfect field of characteristic 2 has a canonical rational point and, thus, is unirational., 35 pages; v2: introduction expanded with some new theorems

We study smooth quartic surfaces in ℙ3which admit a group of projective automorphisms isomorphic to the icosahedron group.

It is known that the dynamical degree of an automorphism g of an algebraic surface S is lower semi-continuous when (S, g) varies in an algebraic family. In this article, we report on computer exper...

We classify all finite subgroups of the plane Cremona group which have a fixed point. In other words, we determine all rational surfaces X with an action of a finite group G such that X is equivariantly birational to a surface which has a G-fixed point.

We classify possible finite groups of symplectic automorphisms of K3 surfaces of order divisible by 11. The characteristic of the ground field must be equal to 11. The complete list of such groups consists of five groups: the cyclic group of order 11, $11\rtimes 5$, $L_2(11)$ and the Mathieu groups $M_{11}$, $M_{22}$. We also show that a surface $X$ admitting an automorphism $g$ of order 11 admits a $g$-invariant elliptic fibration with the Jacobian fibration isomorphic to one of explicitly given elliptic K3 surfaces.

This is a survey of the classical geometry of the Hesse configuration of 12 lines in the projective plane related to inflection points of a plane cubic curve. We also study two K3 surfaces with Picard number 20 which arise naturally in connection with the configuration.

We show that Mukai's classification of finite groups which may act symplectically on a complex K3 surface extends to positive characteristic p under assumptions that (i) the order of the group is coprime to p and (ii) either the surface or its quotient is not birationally isomorphic to a supersingular K3 surface with Artin invariant 1. In the case without assumption (ii) we classify all possible new groups which may appear. We prove that assumption (i) on the order of the group is always satisfied if p > 11. For p = 2,3,5,11, we give examples of K3 surfaces with finite symplectic automorphism groups of order divisible by p which are not contained in Mukai's list.

We find generators of the group of birational automorphisms of the Hessian surface of a general cubic surface. Its nonsingular minimal model is a K3 surface with the Picard lattice of rank 16. The latter embeds naturally in the even unimodular lattice $II^{1,25}$ of rank 26 and signature $(1,25)$ as the orthogonal complement of a root sublattice of rank 10. Our generators are related to reflections with respect to some Leech roots. A similar observation was made first in the case of quartic Kummer surfaces in the work of S. Kond$\bar {\roman o}$. We shall explain how our generators are related to the generators of the group of birational automorphisms of a general quartic Kummer surface which is birationally isomorphic to a special Hessian surface., Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures

We classify rational surfaces for which the image of the automorphisms group in the group of linear transformations of the Picard group is the largest possible. This answers a question raised by Arthur Coble in 1928, and can be rephrased in terms of periodic orbits of a birational action of an infinite Coxeter group on ordered point sets in the projective plane modulo projective equivalence. We also outline the classification of non-rational surfaces with large automorphism groups., Comment: 48 pages, essentially revised version with corrected proofs, to appear in JAMS

We show that the plane Cremona group over a perfect field $k$ of characteristic $p \ge 0$ contains an element of prime order $\ell\ge 7$ not equal to $p$ if and only if there exists a 2-dimensional algebraic torus $T$ over $k$ such that $T(k)$ contains an element of order $\ell$. If $p = 0$ and $k$ does not contain a primitive $\ell$-th root of unity, we show that there are no elements of prime order $\ell > 7$ in $\Cr_2(k)$ and all elements of order 7 are conjugate., 19 pages, essential revision of the previous version

This paper completes the classic and modern results on classification of conjugacy classes of finite subgroups of the group of birational automorphisms of the complex projective plane.

A reduced divisor on a nonsingular variety defines the sheaf of logarithmic 1-forms. We introduce a certain coherent sheaf whose double dual coincides with this sheaf. It has some nice properties, for example, the residue exact sequence still holds even when the divisor is singular, and also it has a simple locally free resolution. We specialize to the case when the divisor is an arrangement of hyperplanes in projective space, and relate the properties of stability of the sheaf with the combinatorics of the arrangement. We also extend a Torelli type theorem to non generic arrangements which allows one to reconstruct an arrangement from the sheaf attached to it., Comment: 28 pages

This is a survey on appearances of reflection groups, real and complex, in algebraic geometry. We also include a brief introduction into the theory of reflection groups., 59 pages, 14 figures, to appear in the Bull. A.M.S

Geometric Invariant Theory gives a method for constructing quotients for group actions on algebraic varieties which in many cases appear as moduli spaces parametrizing isomorphism classes of geometric objects (vector bundles, polarized varieties, etc.). The quotient depends on a choice of an ample linearized line bundle. Two choices are equivalent if they give rise to identical quotients. A priori, there are infinitely many choices since there are infinitely many isomorphism classes of linearized ample line bundles. Hence several fundamental questions naturally arise. Is the set of equivalence classes, and hence the set of non-isomorphic quotients, finite? How does the quotient vary under change of the equivalence class? In this paper we give partial answers to these questions in the case of actions of reductive algebraic groups on nonsingular projective algebraic varieties. We shall show that among ample line bundles which give projective geometric quotients there are only finitely many equivalence classes. These classes span certain convex subsets (chambers) in a certain convex cone in Euclidean space; and when we cross a wall separating one chamber from another, the corresponding quotient undergoes a birational transformation which is similar to a Mori flip., Comment: Plain Tex, Revised version, to appear in Publ. Math. I.H.E.S