We prove the Hasse principle for a smooth projective variety $X\subset \mathbb {P}^{n-1}_\mathbb {Q}$ defined by a system of two cubic forms $F,G$ as long as $n\geq 39$. The main tool here is the development of a version of Kloosterman refinement for a smooth system of equations defined over $\mathbb {Q}$.

We generalise two quartic surfaces studied by Swinnerton-Dyer to give two infinite families of diagonal quartic surfaces which violate the Hasse principle. Standard calculations of Brauer–Manin obstructions are exhibited.

The purpose of this note is to introduce a method for proving the non-existence of rational points on a coarse moduli space $X$ of abelian varieties over a given number field $K$ in cases where the moduli problem is not fine and points in $X\left( K \right)$ may not be represented by an abelian variety (with additional structure) admitting a model over the field $K$. This is typically the case when the abelian varieties that are being classified have even dimension. The main idea, inspired by the work of Ellenberg and Skinner on the modularity of $\mathbb{Q}$-curves, is that one may still attach a Galois representation of $\text{Gal}\left( \bar{K},\,K \right)$ with values in the quotient group $\text{GL}\left( {{T}_{\ell }}\left( A \right) \right)/\,\text{Aut}\left( A \right)$ to a point $P\,=\,\left[ A \right]\,\in \,X\left( K \right)$ represented by an abelian variety $A/\bar{K}$, provided $\text{Aut}\left( A \right)$ lies in the centre of $\text{GL}\left( {{T}_{\ell }}\left( A \right) \right)$. We exemplify our method in the cases where $X$ is a Shimura curve over an imaginary quadratic field or an Atkin–Lehner quotient over $\mathbb{Q}$.

We investigate the Hasse principle for complete intersections cut out by a quadric hypersurface and a cubic hypersurface defined over the rational numbers.

We give a separability criterion for the polynomials of the form

$$\begin{equation*} ax^{2n + 2} + (bx^{2m} + c)(d x^{2k} + e). \end{equation*}$$

$$\begin{equation*} z^2 = ax^{2n + 2} + (bx^{2m} + c)(d x^{2k} + e) \end{equation*}$$

Among the values of a binary quadratic form, there are many twins of fixed distance. This is shown in quantitative form. For quadratic forms of discriminant −4 or 8 a corresponding result is obtained for triplets.

Let X be a projective cubic hypersurface of dimension 11 or more, which is defined over ℚ. We show that X(ℚ) is non-empty provided that the cubic form defining X can be written as the sum of two forms that share no common variables.

An integer may be represented by a quadratic form over each ring of p-adic integers and over the reals without being represented by this quadratic form over the integers. More generally, such failure of a local-global principle may occur for the representation of one integral quadratic form by another integral quadratic form. We show that many such examples may be accounted for by a Brauer–Manin obstruction for the existence of integral points on schemes defined over the integers. For several types of homogeneous spaces of linear algebraic groups, this obstruction is shown to be the only obstruction to the existence of integral points.

Let k be a number field and let X be a smooth, projective and geometrically integral k-variety. We show that, if the geometric Néron-Severi group of X is torsion-free, then the Galois cohomology group is finite. Previously this group was only known to have a finite exponent. We also obtain a vanishing theorem for this group, showing in particular that it is trivial if X belongs to a certain class of abelian varieties with complex multiplication. The interest in the above cohomology group stems from its connection to the torsion subgroup of the Chow group CH2(X) of codimension 2 cycles on X. In the last section of the paper we record certain results on curves which must be familiar to all specialists in this area but which we have not formerly seen in print.

Using non-abelian cohomology we introduce new obstructions to the Hasse principle. In particular, we generalize the classical descent formalism to principal homogeneous spaces under noncommutative algebraic groups and give explicit examples of application.

Let k be a perfect field with cohomological dimension [les ] 2. Serre's conjecture II claims that the Galois cohomology set H1(k,G) is trivial for any simply connected semi-simple algebraic G/k and this conjecture is known for groups of type 1An after Merkurjev–Suslin and for classical groups and groups of type F4 and G2 after Bayer–Parimala. For any maximal torus T of G/k, we study the map H1(k, T) → H1(k, G) using an induction process on the type of the groups, and it yields conjecture II for all quasi-split simply connected absolutely almost k-simple groups with type distinct from E8. We also have partial results for E8 and for some twisted forms of simply connected quasi-split groups. In particular, this method gives a new proof of Hasse principle for quasi-split groups over number fields including the E8-case, which is based on the Galois cohomology of maximal tori of such groups.