Let $r>2$ and $\ell$ be primes. In this paper we study the mod $\ell$ Galois representations attached to curves of the form $y^r = f(x)$ where $f$ is monic and has coefficients belonging to the $r$-th cyclotomic field.
We provide conditions on the coefficients (and degree) of $f$ which allow one to verify the mod $\ell$ image is large outside of a (typically small) finite explicit set of primes. We allow all values of $r$ for which the $r$-th cyclotomic field has odd class number. This appears to be the first explicit result for abelian varieties of dimension greater than two and not of ${\rm GL}_2$-type which allows the ground field to have unramified extensions.
In proving the large image result we give a classification of the maximal subgroups containing transvections of certain classical groups and describe (in many cases) the images of inertia groups.
The exact mod $\ell$ image is governed by the "endomorphism character", a certain algebraic Hecke character which generalises the CM character. When $r=3$, we depict the image in its entirety. To the author's knowledge, this is the first accurate description in the literature.
Finally, we give several examples with genus ranging from 10 to 36. Applications to the Inverse Galois Problem are also included.
A superelliptic curve over a DVR ${\mathcal O}$ of residual characteristic $p$ is a curve given by an equation $C:y^n=f(x)$. The purpose of the present article is to describe the Galois representation attached to such a curve under the hypothesis that $f(x)$ has all its roots in the fraction field of ${\mathcal O}$ and that $p \nmid n$. Our results are inspired on the algorithm given in [BW17] but our description is given in terms of a cluster picture as defined in [DDMM18].
Let $n\geq 2$ be an integer, $F$ a number field, $O_F$ the integral closure of $\mathbb{Z}$ in $F$ and $N$ a positive multiple of $n$. The paper deals with degree $N$ polynomials $P(T) \in O_F[T]$ such that the superelliptic curve $Y^n=P(T)$ has twists $Y^n=d\cdot P(T)$ without $F$-rational points. We show that this condition holds if the Galois group of $P(T)$ over $F$ has an element which fixes no root of $P(T)$. Two applications are given. Firstly, we prove that the proportion of degree $N$ polynomials $P(T) \in O_F[T]$ with height bounded by $H$ and such that the associated curve satisfies…
In this paper, we present efficient algorithms for computing the number of points and the order of the Jacobian group of a superelliptic curve over finite fields of prime order p. Our method employs the Hasse-Weil bounds in conjunction with the Hasse-Witt matrix for superelliptic curves, whose entries we express in terms of multinomial coefficients. We present a fast algorithm for counting points on specific trinomial superelliptic curves and a slower, more general method for all superelliptic curves. For the first case, we reduce the problem of simplifying the entries of the Hasse-Witt matrix…
In this paper, we describe the construction of superelliptic curves with a rational point of prescribed order on their jacobians. The construction is based on Hensel's Lemma and produces for a given integer $N$ a superelliptic curve of genus linear in $N$ with a rational $N$-division point on the jacobian. The method is illustrated with multiple examples.
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.
Let $\mathcal X_g$ be a genus $g\geq 2$ superelliptic curve, $F$ its field of moduli, and $K$ the minimal field of definition. In this short note we construct an equation of the curve $\mathcal X_g$ over its minimal field of definition $K$ when $\mathcal X_g$ has extra automorphisms. We make use of the dihedral invariants of superelliptic curves as defined by Shaska in [6] and results on the automorphism groups of superelliptic curves as in [10].
In this paper, we consider a family of twists of a superelliptic curve over a global field, and obtain results on the distribution of the Mordell-Weil rank of these twists. Our results have applications to the distribution of the number of rational points.
Let $p$ be a prime, and $q$ a power of $p$. Using Galois theory, we show that over a field $K$ of characteristic zero, the endomorphism algebras of the jacobians of certain superelliptic curves $y^q=f(x)$ are products of cyclotomic fields.
For the superelliptic curves of the form $$ (x+1) \cdots(x+i-1)(x+i+1)\cdots (x+k)=y^\ell$$ with $x,y \in \mathbb{Q}$, $y\neq 0$, $k \geq 3$, $1\leq i\leq k$, $\ell \geq 2,$ a prime, Das, Laishram, Saradha, and Edis showed that the superelliptic curve has no rational points for $\ell\geq e^{3^k}$. In fact, the double exponential bound, obtained in these papers is far from reality. In this paper, we study the superelliptic curves for small values of $k$. In particular, we explicitly solve the above equation for $4 \leq k \leq 8.$
We give the distribution of points on smooth superelliptic curves over a fixed finite field, as their degree goes to infinity. We also give the distribution of points on smooth m-fold cyclic covers of the line, for any m, as the degree of their superelliptic model goes to infinity. This builds on previous work of Kurlberg, Rudnick, Bucur, David, Feigon, and Lalin for p-fold cyclic covers, but the limits taken differ slightly and the resulting distributions are interestingly different.
We discuss the structure of the endomorphism algebras of the jacobians of superelliptic curves y^q=f(x) where q is a prime power and f(x) is an irreducible cubic or quartic polynomial over the field of rational functions k(t) in characteristic zero, whose Galois group is the full symmetric group.
Conditionally on the $abc$ conjecture, we generalize previous work of Clark and the author to show that a superelliptic curve $C: y^n = f(x)$ of sufficiently high genus has infinitely many twists violating the Hasse Principle if and only if $f(x)$ has no $\mathbb Q$-rational roots. We also show unconditionally that a curve defined by $C: y^{pN}=f(x)$ has infinitely many twists violating the Hasse Principle over any number field $k$ such that $k$ contains the $p$th roots of unity and $f(x)$ has no $k$-rational roots.
We are concerned with the question of determining the set $C(\mathbb{Q})$, where $C$ is a curve defined by an equation of the form $y^q=f(x)$, where $q$ is an odd prime and $f$ is a polynomial defined over $\mathbb{Q}$. This question can often be answered using a set which encapsulates information about local solubility of a particular collection of covers of $C$. We define this set and show how to compute it.
For a large class (heuristically most) of irreducible binary cubic forms $F(x,y) \in \mathbb Z[x,y]$, Bennett and Dahmen proved that the generalized superelliptic equation $F(x,y)=z^l$ has at most finitely many solutions in $x,y \in \mathbb Z$ coprime, $z \in \mathbb Z$ and exponent $l \in \mathbb Z_{\geq 4} $. Their proof uses, among other ingredients, modularity of certain mod $l$ Galois representations and Ribet's level lowering theorem. The aim of this paper is to treat the same problem for binary cubics with coefficients in $\mathcal O_K$, the ring of integers of an arbitrary number field…
Given $k \geq 2$, we show that there are at most finitely many rational numbers $x$ and $y \neq 0$ and integers $\ell \geq 2$ (with $(k,\ell) \neq (2,2)$) for which $$ x (x+1) \cdots (x+k-1) = y^\ell. $$ In particular, if we assume that $\ell$ is prime, then all such triples $(x,y,\ell)$ satisfy either $y=0$ or $\log \ell < 3^k$.
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.
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.
We give an explicit description of the stable reduction of superelliptic curves of the form $y^n=f(x)$ at primes $\p$ whose residue characteristic is prime to the exponent $n$. We then use this description to compute the local $L$-factor of the curve and the exponent of conductor at $\p$.
Let K be a field of characteristic zero, n>4 an integer, f(x) an irreducible polynomial over K of degree n, whose Galois group is doubly transitive simple non-abelian group. Let p be an odd prime, Z[ζ_p] the ring of integers in the p-th cyclotomic field, C_{f,p}:y^p=f(x) the corresponding superelliptic curve and J(C_{f,p}) its jacobian. Assuming that either n=p+1 or p does not divide n(n-1), we prove that the ring of all endomorphisms of J(C_{f,p}) coincides with Z[ζ_p].
Let $K$ be a local field and $f(x)\in K[x]$ be a non-constant polynomial. The local zeta function $Z_f(s, χ)$ was first introduced by Weil, then studied in detail by Igusa. When ${\rm char}(K)=0$, Igusa proved that $Z_f(s, χ)$ is a rational function of $q^{-s}$ by using the resolution of singularities. Later on, Denef gave another proof of this remarkable result. However, if ${\rm char}(K)>0$, the question of rationality of $Z_f(s, χ)$ is still kept open. Actually, there are only a few known results so far. In this paper, we investigate the local zeta functions of two-variable polynomial $g(x,…
We give a structure theorem for the $m$-torsion of the Jacobian of a general superelliptic curve $y^m=F(x)$. We study existence of torsion on curves of the form $y^q=x^p-x+a$ over finite fields of characteristic $p$. We apply those results to bound from below the Mordell-Weil ranks of Jacobians of certain superelliptic curves over $\mathbb Q$.
Let $C$ be a curve of genus at least three defined over a number field, and let $r$ be the rank of the rational points of its Jacobian. Under mild hypotheses on $r$, recent results by Katz, Rabinoff, Zureick-Brown, and Stoll bound the number of rational points on $C$ by a constant that depends only on its genus. Yet one expects an even stronger bound that depends favorably on $r$: when $r$ is small, there should be fewer points on $C$. In a 2013 paper, Stoll established such a "rank-favorable" bound for hyperelliptic curves using Chabauty's method. In the present work we extend Stoll's results…
Suppose that $K$ is a field of characteristic 0, $p$ is an odd prime, $r$ a positive integer, $q=p^r$ a prime power. Suppose that $f(x)$ is a polynomial of degree $n > 4$ with coefficients in $K$ and without multiple roots. Let us consider the superelliptic curve $C: y^q=f(x)$ and its jacobian $J(C)$. Assuming that $K$ is a subfield of the field of complex numbers, we study the (connected reductive algebraic) Hodge group $Hdg$ of the corresponding complex abelian variety $J(C)$. In our previous paper (arXiv:0907.1563 [math.AG]) we studied the center of $Hdg. In this paper we study the semisimp…
Let K be a field of characteristic zero, f(x) be a polynomial with coefficients in K and without multiple roots. We consider the superelliptic curve C_{f,q} defined by y^q=f(x), where q=p^r is a power of a prime p. We determine the Hodge group of the simple factors of the Jacobian of C_{f,q}.
Let $p$ be a prime, let $r$ and $q$ be powers of $p$, and let $a$ and $b$ be relatively prime integers not divisible by $p$. Let $C/\mathbb F_{r}(t)$ be the superelliptic curve with affine equation $y^b+x^a=t^q-t$. Let $J$ be the Jacobian of $C$. By work of Pries--Ulmer, $J$ satisfies the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture (BSD). Generalizing work of Griffon--Ulmer, we compute the $L$-function of $J$ in terms of certain Gauss sums. In addition, we estimate several arithmetic invariants of $J$ appearing in BSD, including the rank of the Mordell--Weil group $J(\mathbb F_{r}(t))$, the Faltings …
This article computes the Galois groups of congruence covers arising in the context of certain hyperbolic triangle groups. As a consequence of this computation, the genera of the respective curves are deduced.
The class-invariant homomorphism allows one to measure the Galois module structure of extensions obtained by dividing points on abelian varieties. In this paper, we consider the case when the abelian variety is the Jacobian of a Fermat curve. We give examples of torsion points whose associated Galois structure is trivial, as well as points of infinite order whose associated Galois structure is non-trivial.
We construct plane models of the modular curve $X_H(\ell)$, and use their explicit equations to compute Galois representations associated to modular forms for values of $\ell$ that are significantly higher than in prior works.
We prove that, on average, elliptic curves over Q have finitely many primes p for which they possess a p-adic point of order p. We include a discussion of applications to companion forms and the deformation theory of Galois representations.
Given an elliptic curve E over a number field k, the Galois action on the torsion points of E induces a Galois representation, ρ_E : Gal(\bar{k}/k) \to GL_2(\hat{Z}). For a fixed number field k, we describe the image of ρ_E for a "random" elliptic curve E over k. In particular, if k\neq Q is linearly disjoint from the cyclotomic extension of Q, then ρ_E will be surjective for "most" elliptic curves over k.
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, and let $K$ be a number field of degree four that is Galois over $\mathbb{Q}$. The goal of this article is to classify the different isomorphism types of $E(K)_{\text{tors}}$.
We prove in this paper an uniform surjectivity result for Galois representations associated with non-CM $\mathbb{Q}$-curves over imaginary quadratic fields, using various tools for the proof, such as Mazur's method, isogeny theorems, Runge's method and analytic estimates of sums of $L$-functions.
We give a geometric interpretation of the group law for Jacobian varieties by extending the geometric construction of chords and tangents on an elliptic curve. For any given algebraic curve $\mathcal X$ and reduced divisors $D_1, D_2 \in \mbox{Jac } \mathcal X$, we define curves $\mathcal X^\prime$ and $\mathcal X^{"}$ such that the intersection $\mathcal X \cap \mathcal X^\prime$ determines precisely the divisor $-(D_1+D_2)$ and the intersection $\mathcal X\cap \mathcal X^{"}$ determines $D_1+D_2$. For superelliptic curves such formulas are made explicit.
In this paper, we propose an improved algorithm for computing mod $\ell$ Galois representations associated to eigenforms of arbitrary levels prime to $\ell$. Precisely, we present a method to find the Jacobians of modular curves which have the smallest possible dimensions in a well-defined sense to realize the modular Galois representations. This algorithm also works without the assumption $\ell \ge k-1$, where $k$ are the weights of the eigenforms.
Let F be the function field of a curve over totally imaginary number field. Let p be a prime. If F contains a primitive p th root of unity, then every element in the third Galois cohomology group of F with values in the group of p th roots of unity, is a symbol.
Given an elliptic curve $E$ over a local field $K$ with residue characteristic $3$, we investigate the action of the absolute Galois group of $K$ in the case of potentially good reduction. In particular the only not completely known case is that of the $\ell$-adic Galois representation attached to an elliptic curve such that the image of inertia is non-cyclic, and isomorphic to $C_3 \rtimes C_4$. In this work we describe such a representation explicitly.
Let $K$ be a $p$-adic field and $E$ an elliptic curve over $K$ with potential good reduction. For some large Galois extensions $L$ of $K$ containing all $p$-power roots of unity, we show the vanishing of certain Galois cohomology groups of $L$ with values in the $p$-adic representation associated with $E$. This generalizes some results of Coates, Sujatha and Wintenberger.
