Generalized Iskovskikh surfaces and unirationality of del Pezzo surfaces of degree $2$

Abstract

We introduce generalized Iskovskikh surfaces and study their relation to quasi-étale double covers. As an application, we prove that a del Pezzo surface of degree $2$ over an infinite field of characteristic different from $2$ is unirational if it has a rational generalized Eckardt point. This resolves a previously open case not covered by Manin's construction.