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Singular del Pezzo surfaces whose universal torsors are hypersurfaces
Author(s) -
Derenthal Ulrich
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
proceedings of the london mathematical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.899
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1460-244X
pISSN - 0024-6115
DOI - 10.1112/plms/pdt041
Subject(s) - mathematics , subject (documents) , algebra over a field , combinatorics , pure mathematics , computer science , library science
We classify all generalized del Pezzo surfaces (that is, minimal desingularizations of singular del Pezzo surfaces containing only rational double points) whose universal torsors are open subsets of hypersurfaces in affine space. Equivalently, their Cox rings are polynomial rings with exactly one relation. For all 30 types with this property, we describe the Cox rings in detail. These explicit descriptions can be applied to study Manin's conjecture on the asymptotic behavior of the number of rational points of bounded height for singular del Pezzo surfaces, using the universal torsor method.