Manin obstruction
Encyclopedia
In mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, in the field of arithmetic algebraic geometry, the Manin obstruction (named after Yuri Manin) is attached to a geometric object X which measures the failure of the Hasse principle
Hasse principle
In mathematics, Helmut Hasse's local-global principle, also known as the Hasse principle, is the idea that one can find an integer solution to an equation by using the Chinese remainder theorem to piece together solutions modulo powers of each different prime number...

 for X: that is, if the value of the obstruction is non-trivial, then X may have points over all local field
Local field
In mathematics, a local field is a special type of field that is a locally compact topological field with respect to a non-discrete topology.Given such a field, an absolute value can be defined on it. There are two basic types of local field: those in which the absolute value is archimedean and...

s but not over a global field
Global field
In mathematics, the term global field refers to either of the following:*an algebraic number field, i.e., a finite extension of Q, or*a global function field, i.e., the function field of an algebraic curve over a finite field, equivalently, a finite extension of Fq, the field of rational functions...

.

For abelian varieties
Abelian variety
In mathematics, particularly in algebraic geometry, complex analysis and number theory, an abelian variety is a projective algebraic variety that is also an algebraic group, i.e., has a group law that can be defined by regular functions...

 the Manin obstruction is just the Tate-Shafarevich group and fully accounts for the failure of the local-to-global principle (under the assumption that the Tate-Shafarevich group is finite). There are however examples, due to Skorobogatov, of varieties with trivial Manin obstruction which have points everywhere locally and yet no global points.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK