A Positive Proportion of Hasse Principle Failures in a Family of Ch\^atelet Surfaces

Abstract

We investigate the family of surfaces defined by the affine equation $$Y^2 + Z^2 = (aT^2 + b)(cT^2 +d)$$ where $\vert ad-bc \vert=1$ and develop an asymptotic formula for the frequency of Hasse principle failures. We show that a positive proportion (roughly 23.7%) of such surfaces fail the Hasse principle, by building on previous work of la Bret\`{e}che and Browning.