A positive proportion of cubic curves over Q admit linear determinantal representations

Abstract

Can a smooth plane cubic be defined by the determinant of a square matrix with entries in linear forms in three variables? If we can, we say that it admits a linear determinantal representation. In this paper, we investigate linear determinantal representations of smooth plane cubics over various fields, and prove that any smooth plane cubic over a large field (or an ample field) admits a linear determinantal representation. Since local fields are large, any smooth plane cubic over a local field always admits a linear determinantal representation. As an application, we prove that a positive proportion of smooth plane cubics over Q, ordered by height, admit linear determinantal representations. We also prove that, if the conjecture of Bhargava-Kane-Lenstra-Poonen-Rains on the distribution of Selmer groups is true, a positive proportion of smooth plane cubics over Q fail the local-global principle for the existence of linear determinantal representations.

19 pages

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• A positive proportion of plane cubics fail the Hasse principle
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Cited by in corpus (2)

• The local-global principle for symmetric determinantal representations of smooth plane curves in characteristic two
• Linear determinantal representations of smooth plane cubics over finite fields