We prove the existence of an Abelian variety $A$ of dimension $g$ over $\Qa$ which is not isogenous to any Jacobian, subject to the necessary condition $g>3$. Recently, C.Chai and F.Oort gave such a proof assuming the André-Oort conjecture. We modify their proof by constructing a special sequence of CM points for which we can avoid any unproven hypotheses. We make use of various techniques from the recent work of Klingler-Yafaev et al.
In his previous papers (J. reine angew. Math. 544 (2002), 91--110; math.AG/0103203) the author introduced a certain explicit construction of superelliptic jacobians, whose endomorphism ring is the ring of integers in the $p$th cyclotomic field. (Here $p$ is an odd prime.) In the present paper we discuss when these jacobians are mutually non-isogenous. (The case of hyperelliptic jacobians was treated in author's e-print math.NT/0301173 .)
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 …
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 …
Let $K$ be a field of characteristic different from $2$, $\bar{K}$ its algebraic closure. Let $n \ge 3$ be an odd prime such that $2$ is a primitive root modulo $n$. 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 reducible. We prove that if $J(C_f)$ and $J(C_h)$ are isogenous ove…
Given an elliptic curve $E/k$ and a Galois extension $k'/k$, we construct an exact functor from torsion-free modules over the endomorphism ring ${\rm End}(E_{k'})$ with a semilinear ${\rm Gal}(k'/k)$ action to abelian varieties over $k$ that are $k'$-isogenous to a power of $E$. As an application, we show that every elliptic curve with complex multiplication geometrically is isogenous over the ground field to one with complex multiplication by a maximal order.
We construct six infinite series of families of pairs of curves (X,Y) of arbitrarily high genus, defined over number fields, together with an explicit isogeny from the Jacobian of X to the Jacobian of Y splitting multiplication by 2, 3, or 4. For each family, we compute the isomorphism type of the isogeny kernel and the dimension of the image of the family in the appropriate moduli space. The families are derived from Cassou--Noguès and Couveignes' explicit classification of pairs (f,g) of polynomials such that f(x_1) - g(x_2) is reducible.
Two abelian varieties $A_1, A_2$ over a number field $K$ are called strongly iso-Kummerian if the torsion fields $K(A_1[d])$ and $K(A_2[d])$ coincide for all $d \geq 1$. For all $g \geq 4$ we construct geometrically simple, strongly iso-Kummerian $g$-dimensional abelian varieties over number fields that are not geometrically isogenous. We also discuss related examples and put significant constraints on any further iso-Kummerian pair.
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve over a field $k$. Let $R:= \text{End}\, E$. There is a functor $\mathscr{H}\!\!\mathit{om}_R(-,E)$ from the category of finitely presented torsion-free left $R$-modules to the category of abelian varieties isogenous to a power of $E$, and a functor $\text{Hom}(-,E)$ in the opposite direction. We prove necessary and sufficient conditions on $E$ for these functors to be equivalences of categories.
In this paper we give a module-theoretic description of the isomorphism classes of abelian varieties $A$ isogenous to $B^r$, where the characteristic polynomial $g$ of Frobenius of $B$ is an ordinary square-free $q$-Weil polynomial, for a power $q$ of a prime $p$, or a square-free $p$-Weil polynomial with no real roots. Under some extra assumptions on the polynomial $g$ we give an explicit description of all the isomorphism classes which can be computed in terms of fractional ideals of an order in a finite product of number fields. In the ordinary case, we also give a module-theoretic descript…
Let $k$ be a field of characteristic zero containing a primitive fifth root of unity. Let $X/k$ be a smooth cubic threefold with an automorphism of order five, then we observe that over a finite extension of the field actually the dihedral group $D_5$ is a subgroup of ${\rm Aut}(X)$. We find that the intermediate Jacobian $J(X)$ of $X$ is isogenous to the product of an elliptic curve $E$ and the self-product of an abelian surface $B$ with real multiplication by $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{5})$. We give explicit models of some algebraic curves related to the construction of $J(X)$ as a Prym variety. This…
In his previous papers (Math. Res. Letters 7 (2000), 123--13; Progress in Math. 195 (2001), 473--490; Math. Res. Letters 8 (2001), 429--435; Moscow Math. J. 2 (2002), issue 2, 403-431; Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 131 (2003), no. 1, 95--102) the author introduced certain explicit constructions of hyperelliptic jacobians without nontrivial endomorphisms. In the present paper we discuss when these jacobians are mutually non-isogenous. In addition, a special case ($n=m=3$) of our Theorem 1.2 provides the following criterion for elliptic curves $C_f: y^2=f(x)$ and $C_h: y^2=h(x)$ to be non-isogenous. (H…
Investigating a conjecture of Zannier, we study irreducible subvarieties of abelian schemes that dominate the base and contain a Zariski dense set of torsion points that lie on pairwise isogenous fibers. If everything is defined over the algebraic numbers and the abelian scheme has maximal variation, we prove that the geometric generic fiber of such a subvariety is a union of torsion cosets. We go on to prove fully or partially explicit versions of this result in fibered powers of the Legendre family of elliptic curves. Finally, we apply a recent result of Galateau-Martínez to obtain uniform b…
Let Z be a subvariety of the moduli space of principally polarised abelian varieties of dimension g over the complex numbers. Suppose that Z contains a Zariski dense set of points which correspond to abelian varieties from a single isogeny class. A generalisation of a conjecture of André and Pink predicts that Z is a weakly special subvariety. We prove this when dim Z = 1 using the Pila--Zannier method and the Masser--Wüstholz isogeny theorem. This generalises results of Edixhoven and Yafaev when the Hecke orbit consists of CM points and of Pink when it consists of Galois generic points.
If A and B are abelian varieties over a number field K such that there are non-trivial geometric homomorphisms of abelian varieties between reductions of A and B at most primes of K, then there exists a non-trivial (geometric) homomorphism from A to B defined over an algebraic closure of K.
We study the extent to which curves over finite fields are characterized by their zeta functions and the zeta functions of certain of their covers. Suppose C and C' are curves over a finite field K, with K-rational base points P and P', and let D and D' be the pullbacks (via the Abel-Jacobi map) of the multiplication-by-2 maps on their Jacobians. We say that (C,P) and (C',P') are *doubly isogenous* if Jac(C) and Jac(C') are isogenous over K and Jac(D) and Jac(D') are isogenous over K. For curves of genus 2 whose automorphism groups contain the dihedral group of order eight, we show that the nu…
We investigate to what extent an abelian variety over a finite field can be lifted to one in characteristic zero with small Mumford-Tate group. We prove that supersingular abelian surfaces, respectively threefolds, can be lifted to ones isogenous to a square, respectively product, of elliptic curves. On the other hand, we show that supersingular abelian threefolds cannot be lifted to one isogenous to the cube of an elliptic curve over the Witt vectors.
Given a pair of abelian varieties defined over a number field k and isogenous over a finite Galois extension L/k, we define a rational Artin representation of the group Gal(L/k) that shows a global relation between the L-functions of each variety and provides certain information about their decomposition up to isogeny over L. We study several properties of these Artin representations. As an application, for each curve C' in a family of twists of a certain genus 3 curve C, we explicitly compute the Artin representation attached to the Jacobians of C and C' and show how this Artin representation…
In this paper we give conditions under which two abelian varieties that are defined over a finite field $F$, and are isogenous over some larger field, are $F$-isogenous. Further, we give conditions under which a given isogeny is defined over $F$.
By the Jacquet-Langlands correspondence and Faltings' isogeny theorem, it is known that the abelian variety J_0^{Dpq}(N) (the Jacobian of a Shimura curve of discriminant Dpq with Gamma_0(N) level structure) is isogenous to the pq-new subvariety of J_0^D(pqN), whenever p and q are distinct primes not dividing D or N. However, this approach is entirely nonconstructive, and gives no information at all about any particular isogeny between the two varieties. In this paper, we determine the kernels of all possible maps from one variety to the other up to support on a small finite set of maximal idea…
We show that any polarized abelian variety over a finite field is covered by a Jacobian whose dimension is bounded by an explicit constant. We do this by first proving an effective version of Poonen's Bertini theorem over finite fields, which allows us to show the existence of smooth curves arising as hypersurface sections of bounded degree and genus. Additionally, we show that for simple abelian varieties a better bound is possible. As an application of these results we show that if $E$ is an elliptic curve over a finite field then for any $n\in \mathbb{N}$ there exist smooth curves of bounde…
An abelian variety defined over an algebraically closed field k of positive characteristic is supersingular if it is isogenous to a product of supersingular elliptic curves and is superspecial if it is isomorphic to a product of supersingular elliptic curves. In this paper, the superspecial condition is generalized by defining the superspecial rank of an abelian variety, which is an invariant of its p-torsion. The main results in this paper are about the superspecial rank of supersingular abelian varieties and Jacobians of curves. For example, it turns out that the superspecial rank determines…
Faltings's isogeny theorem states that two abelian varieties are isogenous over a number field precisely when the characteristic polynomials of the reductions at almost all prime ideals of the number field agree. This implies that two abelian varieties over $\mathbb{Q}$ with the same $L$-series are necessarily isogenous, but this is false over a general number field. Let $A$ and $A'$ be two abelian varieties, defined over number fields $K$ and $K'$ respectively. Our main result is that $A$ and $A'$ are isogenous after a suitable isomorphism between $K$ and $K'$ if and only if the Dirichlet cha…
We determine the limiting distribution of the normalized Euler factors of an abelian surface A defined over a number field k when A is isogenous to the square of an elliptic curve defined over k with complex multiplication. As an application, we prove the Sato-Tate Conjecture for Jacobians of Q-twists of the curves y^2=x^5-x and y^2=x^6+1, which give rise to 18 of the 34 possibilities for the Sato-Tate group of an abelian surface defined over Q. With twists of these two curves one encounters, in fact, all of the 18 possibilities for the Sato-Tate group of an abelian surface that is isogenous t…
We prove that for any two integers $g\geq 4$ and $g'\leq 2g-1$, there exist abelian varieties over $\overline{\mathbb{Q}}$ which are not quotients of a Jacobian of dimension $g'$. Our method in fact proves that most Abelian varieties satisfy this property, when counting by height relative to a fixed finite map to projective space.
We exhibit the isogeny classes of supersingular abelian threefolds over F_{2^n} containing the Jacobian of a genus 3 curve. In particular, we prove that for even n>6 there always exist a maximal and a minimal curve over F_{2^n}. All the curves can be obtained explicitly.
We study the set of isomorphism classes of principal polarizations on abelian varieties of GL2-type. As applications of our results, we construct examples of curves C, C'/\Q of genus two which are nonisomorphic over \bar \Q and share isomorphic unpolarized modular Jacobian varieties over \Q ; we also show a method to obtain genus two curves over \Q whose Jacobian varieties are isomorphic to Weil's restriction of quadratic \Q-curves, and present examples.
Our goal in this note is to give a number of examples of abelian varieties over function fields k(t) which have bounded ranks in towers of extensions such as k(t^{1/d}) for varying d. Along the way we prove some new results on Fermat curves which may be of independent interest.
Let $C$ be a smooth projective curve defined over a number field $k$, $X/k(C)$ a smooth projective curve of positive genus, $J_X$ the Jacobian variety of $X$ and $(τ,B)$ the $k(C)/k$-trace of $J_X$. We estimate how the rank of $J_X(k(C))/τB(k)$ varies when we take an unramified abelian cover $π:C'\to C$ defined over $k$.
We give a complete answer to the question of which polynomials occur as the characteristic polynomials of Frobenius for genus-2 curves over finite fields.
Let $A$ be a non-isotrivial ordinary abelian surface over a global function field with good reduction everywhere. Suppose that $A$ does not have real multiplication by any real quadratic field with discriminant a multiple of $p$. We prove that there are infinitely many places modulo which $A$ is isogenous to the product of two elliptic curves.
Faltings in 1983 proved that a necessary and sufficient condition for two abelian varieties $A$ and $B$ to be isogenous over a number field $K$ is that the local factors of the L-series of $A$ and $B$ are equal for almost all primes of $K$ ; for each such prime this implies that $A$ and $B$ have the same number of points over the residue field. We show in this article that for abelian varieties faithfully of type GSp (a class containing the abelian varieties with endomorphism ring $\mathbb{Z}$ and of odd dimension) `having the same number of points' may be replaced by `the number of points hav…
Let $X$ (resp. $Y$) be a curve of genus 1 (resp. 2) over a base field $k$ whose characteristic does not equal 2. We give criteria for the existence of a curve $Z$ over $k$ whose Jacobian is up to twist (2,2,2)-isogenous to the products of the Jacobians of $X$ and $Y$. Moreover, we give algorithms to construct the curve $Z$ once equations for $X$ and $Y$ are given. The first of these involves the use of hyperplane sections of the Kummer variety of $Y$ whose desingularization is isomorphic to $X$, whereas the second is based on interpolation methods involving numerical results over $\mathbb{C}$ …
This is (mostly) a survey article. We use an information about Galois properties of points of small order on an abelian variety in order to describe its endomorphism algebra over an algebraic closure of the ground field. We discuss in detail applications to jacobians of cyclic covers of the projective line.
Let k be a field and f be a Siegel modular form of weight h \geq 0 and genus g>1 over k. Using f, we define an invariant of the k-isomorphism class of a principally polarized abelian variety (A,a)/k of dimension g. Moreover when (A,a) is the Jacobian of a smooth plane curve, we show how to associate to f a classical plane invariant. As straightforward consequences of these constructions, when g=3 and k is a subfield of the complex field, we obtain (i) a new proof of a formula of Klein linking the modular form χ_{18} to the square of the discriminant of plane quartics ; (ii) a proof that one ca…
For every finite collection C of abelian varieties over F_q, we produce an explicit upper bound on the genus of curves over F_q whose Jacobians are isogenous to a product of powers of elements of C.
Given an abelian surface, the number of its distinct decompositions into a product of elliptic curves has been described by Ma. Moreover, Ma himself classified the possible decompositions for abelian surfaces of Picard number $1 \leq ρ\leq 3$. We explicitly find all such decompositions in the case of abelian surfaces of Picard number $ρ= 4$. This is done by computing the transcendental lattice of products of isogenous elliptic curves with complex multiplication, generalizing a technique of Shioda and Mitani, and by studying the action of a certain class group on the factors of a given decompos…
We give an efficient, deterministic algorithm to decide if two abelian varieties over a number field are isogenous. From this, we derive an algorithm to compute the endomorphism ring of an elliptic curve over a number field.
In this paper, we associate canonically to every imaginary quadratic field $K=\Bbb Q(\sqrt{-D})$ one or two isogenous classes of CM abelian varieties over $K$, depending on whether $D$ is odd or even ($D \ne 4$). These abelian varieties are characterized as of smallest dimension and smallest conductor, and such that the abelian varieties themselves descend to $\Bbb Q$. When $D$ is odd or divisible by 8, they are the `canonical' ones first studied by Gross and Rohrlich. We prove that these abelian varieties have the striking property that the vanishing order of their $L$-function at the center …
In this note we show that any basic abelian variety with additional structures over an arbitrary algebraically closed field of characteristic $p>0$ is isogenous to another one defined over a finite field. We also show that the category of abelian varieties over finite fields up to isogeny can be embedded into the category of basic abelian varieties with suitable endomorphism structures. Using this connection, we derive a new mass formula for a finite orbit of polarized abelian surfaces over a finite field.
Mazur proved that any element xi of order three in the Shafarevich-Tate group of an elliptic curve E over a number field k can be made visible in an abelian surface A in the sense that xi lies in the kernel of the natural homomorphism between the cohomology groups H^1(k,E) -> H^1(k,A). However, the abelian surface in Mazur's construction is almost never a jacobian of a genus 2 curve. In this paper we show that any element of order three in the Shafarevich-Tate group of an elliptic curve over a number field can be visualized in the jacobians of a genus 2 curve. Moreover, we describe how to get …
We study the Jacobian $J$ of the smooth projective curve $C$ of genus $r-1$ with affine model $y^r = x^{r-1}(x + 1)(x + t)$ over the function field $\mathbb{F}_p(t)$, when $p$ is prime and $r\ge 2$ is an integer prime to $p$. When $q$ is a power of $p$ and $d$ is a positive integer, we compute the $L$-function of $J$ over $\mathbb{F}_q(t^{1/d})$ and show that the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture holds for $J$ over $\mathbb{F}_q(t^{1/d})$. When $d$ is divisible by $r$ and of the form $p^ν+1$, and $K_d := \mathbb{F}_p(μ_d,t^{1/d})$, we write down explicit points in $J(K_d)$, show that they g…
We give a necessary and sufficient condition in terms of a matrix for which all Tate classes are Lefschetz for simple abelian varieties over an algebraic closure of a finite field. As an application, we prove under an assumption that all Tate classes are Lefschetz for simple factors of Fermat Jacobian of prime degree.
Let $A$ be an abelian variety defined over a number field $K$. The number of torsion points that are rational over a finite extension $L$ is bounded polynomially in terms of the degree $[L:K]$ of $L$ over $K$. Under the following three conditions, we compute the optimal exponent for this bound, in terms of the dimension of abelian subvarieties and their endomorphism rings. The three hypothesis are the following: $(1)$ $A$ is geometrically isogenous to a product of simple abelian varieties of type I, II or III, according to the Albert classification; $(2)$ $A$ is of "Lefschetz type", that is, t…
Given an elliptic curve E1 over a number field and an element s in its 2-Selmer group, we give two different ways to construct infinitely many Abelian surfaces A such that the homogeneous space representing s occurs as a fibre of A over another elliptic curve E2. We show that by comparing the 2-Selmer groups of E1, E2 and A, we can obtain information about Sha(E1/K)[2] and we give examples where we use this to obtain a sharp bound on the Mordell-Weil rank of an elliptic curve. As a tool, we give a precise description of the m-Selmer group of an Abelian surface A that is m-isogenous to a produc…
Given a polynomial $f\in\mathbb{C}[x]$, we consider the family of superelliptic curves $y^d=f(x)$ and their Jacobians $J_d$ for varying integers $d$. We show that for any integer $g$ the number of abelian varieties up to isogeny of dimension $\le g$ which appear in any $J_d$ is finite and their multiplicities are bounded.
Let $A$ be an abelian variety defined over a number field $K$, the number of torsion points rational over a finite extension $L$ is bounded polynomially in terms of the degree $[L:K]$. When $A$ is isogenous to a product of simple abelian varieties of $\GSp$ type, i.e. whose Mumford-Tate group is "generic" (isomorphic to the group of symplectic similitudes) and which satisfy the Mumford-Tate conjecture, we compute the optimal exponent for this bound in terms of the dimensions of the abelian subvarieties of $A$. The result is unconditional for a product of simple abelian varieties with endomorph…
