Abstract:
(Joint work with Olivier Benoist.) We develop a theory of
intermediate Jacobians for geometrically rational threefolds over an
arbitrary, not necessarily perfect, field. We deduce that a
3-dimensional smooth intersection of two quadrics is rational if and
only if it contains a line. We thus obtain the first
counterexamples to the Luroth problem that become rational after
a purely inseparable extension of scalars.