Quotients of del Pezzo surfaces

Abstract

Let [Formula: see text] be any field of characteristic zero, [Formula: see text] be a del Pezzo surface and [Formula: see text] be a finite subgroup in [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we study when the quotient surface [Formula: see text] can be non-rational over [Formula: see text]. Obviously, if there are no smooth [Formula: see text]-points on [Formula: see text] then it is not [Formula: see text]-rational. Therefore, under assumption that the set of smooth [Formula: see text]-points on [Formula: see text] is not empty we show that there are few possibilities for non-[Formula: see text]-rational quotients. The quotients of del Pezzo surfaces of degree [Formula: see text] and greater are considered in the author’s previous papers. In this paper, we study the quotients of del Pezzo surfaces of degree [Formula: see text]. We show that they can be non-[Formula: see text]-rational only for the trivial group or cyclic groups of order [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. For the trivial group and the group of order [Formula: see text], we show that both [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are not [Formula: see text]-rational if the [Formula: see text]-invariant Picard number of [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text]. For the groups of order [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], we construct examples of both [Formula: see text]-rational and non-[Formula: see text]-rational quotients of both [Formula: see text]-rational and non-[Formula: see text]-rational del Pezzo surfaces of degree [Formula: see text] such that the [Formula: see text]-invariant Picard number of [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text]. As a result of complete classification of non-[Formula: see text]-rational quotients of del Pezzo surfaces we classify surfaces that are birationally equivalent to quotients of [Formula: see text]-rational surfaces, and obtain some corollaries concerning fields of invariants of [Formula: see text].