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Daniel Loughran
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An arithmetic analogue of the discriminant curve of a conic bundle threefold

I am looking for an "arithmetic" analogue of a well known result on threefolds with a conic bundle structure. The following result can be found in [Iskovskikh - On the rationality problem for conic bundles, Lemma 1].


Let $X$ be a smooth irreducible threefold over $\mathbb{C}$ with a morphism $\pi:X \to B$ to a smooth rational surface $B$ such that

(i) Every fibre is a (possibly degenerate) conic
(ii) For every irreducible curve $C \subset B$, the fibre above $C$ is an irreducible surface.

Then, then there exists a reduced normal crossings divisor (the "discriminant curve") $\Delta \subset B$ such that for any $b \in B$ we have:

(a) $\pi^{-1}(b) \cong \mathbb{P}^1$, if $b \not \in \Delta$
(b) $\pi^{-1}(b)$ is two intersecting lines if $b \in \Delta \backslash Sing (\Delta) $
(c) $\pi^{-1}(b)$ is a non-reduced line if $b \in Sing(\Delta) $
(d) In particular, there are only finitely many non-reduced fibres.


In my situation, I have a smooth conic bundle surface $p:S \to \mathbb{P}^1$ defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, and I have chosen a regular model $\pi: X \to \mathbb{P}^1_{\mathbb{Z}}$, i.e. the generic fibre of $\pi$ is exactly given by the morphism $p$. I am pretty sure that I can assume the appropriate analogue of condition (i), I'm not entirely sure about condition (ii) yet but I am not worrying too much about it at the moment.

Does an analogue of the above result hold in my case? If so, does anyone have a reference to where it has been worked out in the literature?

I hope it is clear, but just to clarify I am hoping that there is a reduced normal crossings divisor $\Delta \subset \mathbb{P}^1_{\mathbb{Z}}$ which satisfies the appropriate analogues of conditions (a), (b), (c) and (d).

Daniel Loughran
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