In this paper, we study compactifications of the moduli of smooth del Pezzo surfaces using K-stability and the line arrangement. We construct K-moduli of log del Pezzo pairs with sum of lines as boundary divisors, and prove that for $d=2,3,4$, these K-moduli of pairs are isomorphic to the K-moduli spaces of del Pezzo surfaces. For $d=1$, we prove that they are different by exhibiting some walls.

We establish two results on three-dimensional del Pezzo fibrations in positive characteristic. First, we give an explicit bound for torsion index of relatively torsion line bundles. Second, we show the existence of purely inseparable sections with explicit bounded degree. To prove these results, we study log del Pezzo surfaces defined over imperfect fields.

We develop a new non-vanishing theorem for del Pezzo surfaces with quotient singularities.

In the present paper we classify del Pezzo surfaces with log terminal singularities admitting an action of a finite simple group.

We classify generically transitive actions of semi-direct products on ℙ2. Motivated by the program to study the distribution of rational points on del Pezzo surfaces (Manin's conjecture), we determine all (possibly singular) del Pezzo surfaces that are equivariant compactifications of homogeneous spaces for semi-direct products .

A conjecture of Manin predicts the distribution of rational points on Fano varieties. We provide a framework for proofs of Manin’s conjecture for del Pezzo surfaces over imaginary quadratic fields, using universal torsors. Some of our tools are formulated over arbitrary number fields. As an application, we prove Manin’s conjecture over imaginary quadratic fields $K$ for the quartic del Pezzo surface $S$ of singularity type ${\boldsymbol{A}}_{3}$ with five lines given in ${\mathbb{P}}_{K}^{4}$ by the equations ${x}_{0}{x}_{1}-{x}_{2}{x}_{3}={x}_{0}{x}_{3}+{x}_{1}{x}_{3}+{x}_{2}{x}_{4}=0$.

In their paper [Exceptional sequences of invertible sheaves on rational surfaces, Compositio Math. 147 (2011), 1230–1280], Hille and Perling associate to every cyclic full strongly exceptional sequence of line bundles on a toric weak del Pezzo surface a toric system, which defines a new toric surface. We interpret this construction as an instance of mirror symmetry and extend it to a duality on the set of toric weak del Pezzo surfaces equipped with a cyclic full strongly exceptional sequence.

We describe equations of the universal torsors over del Pezzo surfaces of degrees from 2 to 5 over an algebraically closed field in terms of the equations of the corresponding homogeneous space G/P. We also give a generalization for fields that are not algebraically closed.

We study the arithmetic of certain del Pezzo surfaces of degree 2. We produce examples of Brauer-Manin obstruction to the Hasse principle, coming from 2- and 4-torsion elements in the Brauer group.

We discuss the problem of classifying crepant analytically extremal contractions $X \to Y$ from a smooth 3-fold, contracting an irreducible normal divisor D in X to a point P in Y. We prove that, if D has degree $(-K_D)^2 \geq 5$, the analytic structure of the contraction is completely determined by the isomorphism class of the exceptional locus and its normal bundle. This was previously known only for a smooth exceptional locus D.

Pour chaque entier $d=2,3,4$, il existe un corps $F$ de dimension cohomologique $1$ et une surface de del Pezzo de degré $d$ sur $F$ sans zéro-cycle de degré $1$, en particulier sans point rationnel. Les démonstrations utilisent le théorème de Merkur’ev et Suslin, le théorème de Riemann-Roch sur une surface et la formule du degré de Rost.