Let $C$ be a smooth projective curve of genus $g \ge 1$ over a finite field $\F$ of cardinality $q$. In this paper, we first study $\#\J_C$, the size of the Jacobian of $C$ over $\F$ in case that $\F(C)/\F(X)$ is a geometric Galois extension. This improves results of Shparlinski \cite{shp}. Then we study fluctuations of the quantity $\log \#\J_C-g \log q$ as the curve $C$ varies over a large family of hyperelliptic curves of genus $g$. For fixed genus and growing $q$, Katz and Sarnak showed that $\sqrt{q}\left(\log \# \J_C-g \log q\right)$ is distributed as the trace of a random $2g \times 2g$ unitary symplectic matrix. When the finite field is fixed and the genus grows, we find the limiting distribution of $\log \#\J_C-g \log q$ in terms of the characteristic function. When both the genus and the finite field grow, we find that $\sqrt{q}\left(\log \# \J_C-g \log q\right)$ has a standard Gaussian distribution.
We describe a qualitative improvement to the algorithms for performing 2-descents to obtain information regarding the Mordell-Weil rank of a hyperelliptic Jacobian. The improvement has been implemented in the Magma Computational Algebra System and as a result, the rank bounds for hyperelliptic Jacobians are now sharper and have the conjectured parity.
We construct three-dimensional families of hyperelliptic curves of genus 6, 12, and 14, two-dimensional families of hyperelliptic curves of genus 3, 6, 7, 10, 20, and 30, and one-dimensional families of hyperelliptic curves of genus 5, 10 and 15, all of which are equipped with an an explicit isogeny from their Jacobian to another hyperelliptic Jacobian. We show that the Jacobians are generically absolutely simple, and describe the kernels of the isogenies. The families are derived from Cassou--Noguès and Couveignes' explicit classification of pairs $(f,g)$ of polynomials such that $f(x_1) - g(…
We study how Tamagawa numbers of Jacobians of hyperelliptic curves vary as one varies the base field or the curve, in the case of semistable reduction. We find that there are strong constraints on the behaviour that appears, some of which are unexpected and specific to hyperelliptic curves. Our methods are explicit and allow one to write down formulae for Tamagawa numbers of infinite families of hyperelliptic curves, of the kind used in proofs of the parity conjecture for Jacobians of curves of small genus.
We show that torsion points of certain orders are not on a theta divisor in the Jacobian variety of a hyperelliptic curve given by the equation $y^2=x^{2g+1}+x$ with $g \geq 2$. The proof employs a method of Anderson who proved an analogous result for a cyclic quotient of a Fermat curve of prime degree.
In this paper, we study the algebraic rank and the analytic rank of the Jacobian of hyperelliptic curves $y^2 = x^5 + m^2$ for integers $m$. Namely, we first provide a condition on $m$ that gives a bound of the size of Selmer group and then we provide a condition on $m$ that makes $L$-functions non-vanishing. As a consequence, we construct a Jacobian that satisfies the rank part of the Birch--Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.
We describe the use of explicit isogenies to translate instances of the Discrete Logarithm Problem (DLP) from Jacobians of hyperelliptic genus 3 curves to Jacobians of non-hyperelliptic genus 3 curves, where they are vulnerable to faster index calculus attacks. We provide explicit formulae for isogenies with kernel isomorphic to $(\ZZ/2\ZZ)^3$ (over an algebraic closure of the base field) for any hyperelliptic genus 3 curve over a field of characteristic not 2 or 3. These isogenies are rational for a positive fraction of all hyperelliptic genus 3 curves defined over a finite field of character…
We consider the problem of efficient computation in the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve of genus 3 defined over a field whose characteristic is not 2. For curves with a rational Weierstrass point, fast explicit formulas are well known and widely available. Here we address the general case, in which we do not assume the existence of a rational Weierstrass point, using a balanced divisor approach.
It was shown by Faltings and Hriljac that the Néron-Tate height of a point on the Jacobian of a curve can be expressed as the self-intersection of a corresponding divisor on a regular model of the curve. We make this explicit and use it to give an algorithm for computing Néron-Tate heights on Jacobians of hyperelliptic curves. To demonstrate the practicality of our algorithm, we illustrate it by computing Néron-Tate heights on Jacobians of hyperelliptic curves of genus from 1 to 9.
Inspired by experimental data, this paper investigates which isogeny classes of abelian varieties defined over a finite field of odd characteristic contain the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve. We provide a necessary condition by demonstrating that the Weil polynomial of a hyperelliptic Jacobian must have a particular form modulo 2. For fixed ${g\geq1}$, the proportion of isogeny classes of $g$ dimensional abelian varieties defined over $\mathbb{F}_q$ which fail this condition is $1 - Q(2g + 2)/2^g$ as $q\to\infty$ ranges over odd prime powers, where $Q(n)$ denotes the number of partitions of…
We use Arakelov theory to define a height on divisors of degree zero on a hyperelliptic curve over a global field, and show that this height has computably bounded difference from the Néron-Tate height of the corresponding point on the Jacobian. We give an algorithm to compute the set of points of bounded height with respect to this new height. This provides an `in principle' solution to the problem of determining the sets of points of bounded Néron-Tate heights on the Jacobian. We give a worked example of how to compute the bound over a global function field for several curves, of genera up t…
In this article we extend work of Shanks and Washington on cyclic extensions, and elliptic curves associated to the simplest cubic fields. In particular, we give families of examples of hyperelliptic curves $C: y^2=f(x)$ defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, with $f(x)$ of degree $p$, where $p$ is a Sophie Germain prime, such that the rank of the Mordell--Weil group of the jacobian $J/\mathbb{Q}$ of $C$ is bounded by the genus of $C$ and the $2$-rank of the class group of the (cyclic) field defined by $f(x)$, and exhibit examples where this bound is sharp.
We prove that the jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve y^2=f(x) has no nontrivial endomorphisms over an algebraic closure of the ground field of characteristic zero if the Galois group of the polynomial f is ``very big''.
We propose a solution to the hyperelliptic Schottky problem, based on the use of Jacobian Nullwerte and symmetric models for hyperelliptic curves. Both ingredients are interesting on its own, since the first provide period matrices which can be geometrically described, and the second have remarkable arithmetic properties.
In this paper we obtain conditions on the divisors of the group order of the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic genus 2 curve, generated by the complex multiplication method described by Weng (2003) and Gaudry (2005). Examples, where these conditions imply that the Jacobian has a large cyclic subgroup, are given.
We study the variation of Selmer ranks of Jacobians of twists of hyperelliptic curves and superelliptic curves. We find sufficient conditions for such curves to have infinitely many twists whose Jacobians have Selmer ranks equal to $r$, for any given nonnegative integer $r$. This generalizes earlier results of Mazur-Rubin on elliptic curves.
We analyze complex multiplication for Jacobians of curves of genus 3, as well as the resulting Shimura class groups and their subgroups corresponding to Galois conjugation over the reflex field. We combine our results with numerical methods to find CM fields $K$ for which there exist both hyperelliptic and non-hyperelliptic curves whose Jacobian has complex multiplication by $\mathbb{Z}_K$. More precisely, we find all sextic CM fields $K$ in the LMFDB for which (heuristically) Jacobians of both types with CM by $\mathbb{Z}_K$ exist. There turn out to be 14 such fields among the 547,156 sextic …
We prove that the jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve y^2=f(x) is absolutely simple if deg(f)=q+1 where q is a power prime congruent to 5 modulo 8, the polynomial f(x) is irreducible over the ground field of characteristic zero and its Galois group is L_2(q).
We prove that in odd characteristic the jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve $y^2=f(x)$ has no nontrivial endomorphisms over an algebraic closure of the ground field if the Galois group of the polynomial $f$ of even degree is ``very big". The case of characteristic zero was previously treated by the author (Math. Res. Letters 7(2000), 123--132).
A representation of a finite group $G$ on a finite dimensional vector space $V$ is called \textbf{unisingular} if every $g\in G$ has 1 as an eigenvalue in its action on $V$. In this paper we show that certain unisingular representations can be realized as mod 2 representations of hyperelliptic Jacobians over $\Q$. We additionally identify new unisingular representations of the symmetric and alternating groups.
We explicitly construct the Kummer variety associated to the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve of genus 3 that is defined over a field of characteristic not equal to 2 and has a Weierstraß point defined over the same field. We also construct homogeneous quartic polynomials on the Kummer variety and show that they represent the duplication map.
Let $k$ be a field of characteristic $0$, and let $α_{1}$, $α_{2}$, ..., $α_{5}$ be algebraically independent and transcendental over $k$. Let $K$ be the transcendental extension of $k$ obtained by adjoining the elementary symmetric functions of the $α_{i}$'s. Let $J$ be the Jacobian of the hyperelliptic curve defined over $K$ which is given by the equation $y^{2} = \prod_{i = 1}^{5} (x - α_{i})$. We define a tower of field extensions $K = K_{0}' \subset K_{1}' \subset K_{2}' \subset ...$ by giving recursive formulas for the generators of each $K_{n}'$ over $K_{n - 1}'$, and let $K_{\infty}' =…
Let $p$ be an odd prime number and be an integer coprime to $p$. We survey an algorithm for computing explicit rational representations of $(\ell,...,\ell)$-isogenies between Jacobians of hyperelliptic curves of arbitrary genus over an extension $K$ of the field of $p$-adic numbers $\mathbb{Q}\_p$. The algorithm has a quasi-linear complexity in $\ell$ as well as in the genus of the curves.
We prove that the jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve $y^2=(x-t)h(x)$ has no nontrivial endomorphisms over an algebraic closure of the ground field $K$ of characteristic zero if $t \in K$ and the Galois group of the polynomial $h(x)$ over $K$ is "very big" and $deg(h)$ is an even number >8. (The case of odd $deg(h)>3$ follows easily from previous results of the author.)
We prove that when all hyperelliptic curves of genus $n\geq 1$ having a rational Weierstrass point are ordered by height, the average size of the 2-Selmer group of their Jacobians is equal to 3. It follows that (the limsup of) the average rank of the Mordell-Weil group of their Jacobians is at most 3/2. The method of Chabauty can then be used to obtain an effective bound on the number of rational points on most of these hyperelliptic curves; for example, we show that a majority of hyperelliptic curves of genus $n\geq 3$ with a rational Weierstrass point have fewer than 20 rational points.
Up to isomorphism over C, every simple principally polarized abelian variety of dimension 3 is the Jacobian of a smooth projective curve of genus 3. Furthermore, this curve is either a hyperelliptic curve or a plane quartic. Given a sextic CM field K, we show that if there exists a hyperelliptic Jacobian with CM by K, then all principally polarized abelian varieties that are Galois conjugated to it are hyperelliptic. Using Shimura's reciprocity law, we give an algorithm for computing approximations of the invariants of the initial curve, as well as their Galois conjugates. This allows us ton d…
In this paper, we obtain bounds for the Mordell-Weil ranks over cyclotomic extensions of a wide range of abelian varieties defined over a number field $F$ whose primes above $p$ are totally ramified over $F/\mathbb{Q}$. We assume that the abelian varieties may have good non-ordinary reduction at those primes. Our work is a generalization of \cite{Kim}, in which the second author generalized Perrin-Riou's Iwasawa theory for elliptic curves over $\mathbb{Q}$ with supersingular reduction (\cite{Perrin-Riou}) to elliptic curves defined over the above-mentioned number field $F$. On top of non-ordin…
Given a field $k$ of characteristic different from $2$ and an integer $d \geq 3$, let $J$ be the Jacobian of the "generic" hyperelliptic curve given by $y^2 = \prod_{i = 1}^d (x - α_i)$, where the $α_i$'s are transcendental and independent over $k$; it is defined over the transcendental extension $K / k$ generated by the symmetric functions of the $α_i$'s. We investigate certain subfields of the field $K_{\infty}$ obtained by adjoining all points of $2$-power order of $J(\bar{K})$. In particular, we explicitly describe the maximal abelian subextension of $K_{\infty} / K(J[2])$ and show that it…
We give a completely explicit upper bound for integral points on (standard) affine models of hyperelliptic curves, provided we know at least one rational point and a Mordell-Weil basis of the Jacobian. We also explain a powerful refinement of the Mordell--Weil sieve which, combined with the upper bound, is capable of determining all the integral points. Our method is illustrated by determining the integral points on a two genus 2 hyperelliptic curves with Mordell--Weil Jacobian ranks of 3 and 6.
For a complex polynomial $D(t)$ of even degree, one may define the continued fraction of $\sqrt{D(t)}$. This was found relevant already by Abel in 1826, and later by Chebyshev, concerning integration of (hyperelliptic) differentials; they realized that, contrary to the classical case of square roots of positive integers treated by Lagrange and Galois, we do not always have pre-periodicity of the partial quotients. In this paper we shall prove that, however, a correct analogue of Lagrange's theorem still exists in full generality: pre-periodicity of the {\it degrees} of the partial quotients al…
In [5], Manjul Bhargava and Benedict Gross considered the family of hyperelliptic curves over $\Q$ having a fixed genus and a marked rational Weierstrass point. They showed that the average size of the 2-Selmer group of the Jacobians of these curves, when ordered by height, is 3. In this paper, we consider the family of hyperelliptic curves over $\Q$ having a fixed genus and a marked rational non-Weierstrass point. We show that when these curves are ordered by height, the average size of the 2-Selmer group of their Jacobians is 6. This yields an upper bound of 5/2 on the average rank of the Mo…
Given a sextic CM field $K$, we give an explicit method for finding all genus 3 hyperelliptic curves defined over $\mathbb{C}$ whose Jacobians are simple and have complex multiplication by the maximal order of this field, via an approximation of their Rosenhain invariants. Building on the work of Weng, we give an algorithm which works in complete generality, for any CM sextic field $K$, and computes minimal polynomials of the Rosenhain invariants for any period matrix of the Jacobian. This algorithm can be used to generate genus 3 hyperelliptic curves over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_p$ with a …
In this paper we study the Coleman-Oort conjecture for superelliptic curves, i.e., curves defined by affine equations $y^n=F(x)$ with $F$ a separable polynomial. We prove that up to isomorphism there are at most finitely many superelliptic curves of fixed genus $g\geq 8$ with CM Jacobians. The proof relies on the geometric structures of Shimura subvarieties in Siegel modular varieties and the stability properties of Higgs bundles associated to fibred surfaces.
Consider the Jacobian of a genus two curve defined over a finite field and with complex multiplication. In this paper we show that if the l-Sylow subgroup of the Jacobian is not cyclic, then the embedding degree of the Jacobian with respect to l is one.
In this article, we show that in each of four standard families of hyperelliptic curves, there is a density-$1$ subset of members with the property that their Jacobians have adelic Galois representation with image as large as possible. This result constitutes an explicit application of a general theorem on arbitrary rational families of abelian varieties to the case of families of Jacobians of hyperelliptic curves. Furthermore, we provide explicit examples of hyperelliptic curves of genus $2$ and $3$ over $\mathbb Q$ whose Jacobians have such maximal adelic Galois representations.
Let $\mathcal{X} : y^2 = f(x)$ be a hyperelliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}(T)$ of genus $g\geq 1$. Assume that the jacobian of $\mathcal{X}$ over $\mathbb{Q}(T)$ has no subvariety defined over $\mathbb{Q}$. Denote by $\mathcal{X}_t$ the specialization of $\mathcal{X}$ to an integer $T=t$, let $a_{\mathcal{X}_t}(p)$ be its trace of Frobenius, and $A_{\mathcal{X},r}(p) = \frac{1}{p}\sum_{t=1}^p a_{\mathcal{X}_t}(p)^r$ its $r$-th moment. The first moment is related to the rank of the jacobian $J_\mathcal{X}\left(\mathbb{Q}(T)\right)$ by a generalization of a conjecture of Nagao: $$\lim_{X \to \inft…
In his previous papers the author proved that in characteristic different from 2 the jacobian J(C) of a hyperelliptic curve C: y^2=f(x) has only trivial endomorphisms over an algebraic closure K_a of the ground field K if the Galois group of the irreducible polynomial f(x) in K[x] is either the full symmetric group S_n or the alternating group A_n. Here n > 8 is the degree of f. The goal of this paper is to extend this result to the case when either n=7,8 or n=5,6 and char(K)>3.
Let $K$ be a number field, and let $C$ be a hyperelliptic curve over $K$ with Jacobian $J$. Suppose that $C$ is defined by an equation of the form $y^{2} = f(x)(x - λ)$ for some irreducible monic polynomial $f \in \mathcal{O}_{K}[x]$ of discriminant $Δ$ and some element $λ\in \mathcal{O}_{K}$. Our first main result says that if there is a prime $\mathfrak{p}$ of $K$ dividing $(f(λ))$ but not $(2Δ)$, then the image of the natural $2$-adic Galois representation is open in $\mathrm{GSp}(T_{2}(J))$ and contains a certain congruence subgroup of $\mathrm{Sp}(T_{2}(J))$ depending on the maximal power…
Consider the jacobian of a hyperelliptic genus two curve defined over a finite field. Under certain restrictions on the endomorphism ring of the jacobian we give an explicit description all non-degenerate, bilinear, anti-symmetric and Galois-invariant pairings on the jacobian. From this description it follows that no such pairing can be computed more efficiently than the Weil pairing. To establish this result, we need an explicit description of the representation of the Frobenius endomorphism on the l-torsion subgroup of the jacobian. This description is given. In particular, we show that if t…
We introduce an algorithm to compute the rational torsion subgroup of the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve of genus 3 over the rationals. We apply a Magma implementation of our algorithm to a database of curves with low discriminant due to Sutherland as well as a list of curves with small coefficients. In the process, we find several torsion structures not previously described in the literature. The algorithm is a generalisation of an algorithm for genus 2 due to Stoll, which we extend to abelian varieties satisfying certain conditions. The idea is to compute p-adic torsion lifts of points ov…
Given a principally polarized abelian variety $A$ of dimension $g$ over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p$, the $p$ torsion $A[p]$ is a finite flat $p$-torsion group scheme of rank $p^{2g}$. There are exactly $2^g$ possible group schemes that can occur as some such $A[p]$. In this paper, we study which group schemes can occur as $J[p]$, where $J$ is the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve defined over $\mathbb{F}_p$. We do this by computing explicit formulae for the action of Frobenius and its dual on the de Rham cohomology of a hyperelliptic curve with respect to a given ba…
We study the 2-parity conjecture for Jacobians of hyperelliptic curves over number fields. Under some mild assumptions on their reduction, we prove the conjecture over quadratic extensions of the base field. The proof proceeds via a generalisation of a formula of Kramer and Tunnell relating local invariants of the curve, which may be of independent interest. A new feature of this generalisation is the appearance of terms which govern whether or not the Cassels--Tate pairing on the Jacobian is alternating, which first appeared in work of Poonen--Stoll. We establish the local formula in many ins…
We develop an explicit theory of Kummer varieties associated to Jacobians of hyperelliptic curves of genus 3, over any field $k$ of characteristic $\neq 2$. In particular, we provide explicit equations defining the Kummer variety $\mathcal K$ as a subvariety of $\mathbb P^7$, together with explicit polynomials giving the duplication map on $\mathcal K$. A careful study of the degenerations of this map then forms the basis for the development of an explicit theory of heights on such Jacobians when $k$ is a number field. We use this input to obtain a good bound on the difference between naive an…
We propose a conjectural explicit isogeny from the Jacobians of hyperelliptic Drinfeld modular curves to the Jacobians of hyperelliptic modular curves of $\mathcal{D}$-elliptic sheaves. The kernel of the isogeny is a subgroup of the cuspidal divisor group constructed by examining the canonical maps from the cuspidal divisor group into the component groups.
Let $k$ be a subfield of $\mathbb{C}$ which contains all $2$-power roots of unity, and let $K = k(α_{1}, α_{2}, ... , α_{2g + 1})$, where the $α_{i}$'s are independent and transcendental over $k$, and $g$ is a positive integer. We investigate the image of the $2$-adic Galois action associated to the Jacobian $J$ of the hyperelliptic curve over $K$ given by $y^{2} = \prod_{i = 1}^{2g + 1} (x - α_{i})$. Our main result states that the image of Galois in $\mathrm{Sp}(T_{2}(J))$ coincides with the principal congruence subgroup $Γ(2) \lhd \mathrm{Sp}(T_{2}(J))$. As an application, we find generator…
In his previous paper (Math. Res. Letters 7(2000), 123--132) the author proved that in characteristic zero the jacobian $J(C)$ of a hyperelliptic curve $C: y^2=f(x)$ has only trivial endomorphisms over an algebraic closure $K_a$ of the ground field $K$ if the Galois group $Gal(f)$ of the irreducible polynomial $f(x) \in K[x]$ is either the symmetric group $S_n$ or the alternating group $A_n$. Here $n>4$ is the degree of $f$. In math.AG/0003002 we extended this result to the case of certain ``smaller'' Galois groups. In particular, we treated the infinite series $n=2^r+1, Gal(f)=L_2(2^r)$ and $…
Let $K$ be a global field of characteristic different from 2 and $u(x)\in K[x]$ be an irreducible polynomial of even degree $2g\ge 6$, whose Galois group over $K$ is either the full symmetric group $S_{2g}$ or the alternating group $A_{2g}$. We describe explicitly how to choose (infinitely many) pairs of distinct elements $t_1, t_2$ of $K$ such that the $g$-dimensional jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve $y^2=(x-t_1)(x-t_2))u(x)$ has no nontrivial endomorphisms over an algebraic closure of $K$ and has big $\ell$-adic monodromy.
We consider the identity component of the Sato-Tate group of the Jacobian of curves of the form $$C_1\colon y^2=x^{2g+2}+c, C_2\colon y^2=x^{2g+1}+cx, C_3\colon y^2=x^{2g+1} +c,$$ where $g$ is the genus of the curve and $c\in\mathbb Q^*$ is constant. We approach this problem in three ways. First we use a theorem of Kani-Rosen to determine the splitting of Jacobians for $C_1$ curves of genus 4 and 5 and prove what the identity component of the Sato-Tate group is in each case. We then determine the splitting of Jacobians of higher genus $C_1$ curves by finding maps to lower genus curves and then…
We give a method for the computation of integral points on a hyperelliptic curve of odd degree over the rationals whose genus equals the Mordell-Weil rank of its Jacobian. Our approach consists of a combination of the $p$-adic approximation techniques introduced in previous work with the Mordell-Weil sieve
It is well-known that abelian varieties are projective, and so that there exist explicit polynomial and rational functions which define both the variety and its group law. It is however difficult to find any explicit polynomial and rational functions describing these varieties or their group laws in dimensions greater than two. One exception can be found in Mumford's classic "Lectures on Theta", where he describes how to obtain an explicit model for hyperelliptic Jacobians as the union of several affine pieces described as the vanishing locus of explicit polynomial equations. In this article, …
Let $K$ be a field of characteristic different from $2$, $\bar{K}$ its algebraic closure. Let $n \ge 3$ be an odd integer. Let $f(x)$ and $h(x)$ be degree $n$ polynomials with coefficients in $K$ and without repeated roots. Let us consider genus $(n-1)/2$ hyperelliptic curves $C_f: y^2=f(x)$ and $C_h: y^2=h(x)$, and their jacobians $J(C_f)$ and $J(C_h)$, which are $(n-1)/2$-dimensional abelian varieties defined over $K$. Suppose that one of the polynomials is irreducible and the other splits completely over $K$. We prove that if $J(C_f)$ and $J(C_h)$ are isogenous over $\bar{K}$ then there is …
