Arithmetic and birational properties of linear spaces on intersections of two quadrics

Abstract

We study rationality questions for Fano schemes of linear spaces on smooth complete intersections of two quadrics, especially over non-closed fields. Our approach is to study hyperbolic reductions of the pencil of quadrics associated to $X$. We prove that the Fano schemes $F_r(X)$ of $r$-planes are birational to symmetric powers of hyperbolic reductions, generalizing results of Reid and Colliot-Th\'el\`ene--Sansuc--Swinnerton-Dyer, and we give several applications to rationality properties of $F_r(X)$. For instance, we show that if $X$ contains an $(r+1)$-plane over a field $k$, then $F_r(X)$ is rational over $k$. When $X$ has odd dimension, we show a partial converse for rationality of the Fano schemes of second maximal linear spaces, generalizing results of Hassett--Tschinkel and Benoist--Wittenberg. When $X$ has even dimension, the analogous result does not hold, and we further investigate this situation over the real numbers. In particular, we prove a rationality criterion for the Fano schemes of second maximal linear spaces on these even-dimensional complete intersections over $\mathbb R$; this may be viewed as extending work of Hassett--Koll\'ar--Tschinkel.