Let $C/\mathbb{Q}$ be a hyperelliptic curve with an affine model of the form $y^2=x^p+a$. We explicitly determine the root number of the Jacobian of $C$, with particular focus on the local root number at $p$ where $C$ has wild ramification.
We present a method for computing the Mordell-Weil rank of the jacobian of a curve of genus 2 with multiplication by a square root of 2, based on descent via isogenies of degree 2, and apply it to a family of curves.
Let $p$ be an odd prime number. Let $K$ be the $p$-th cyclotomic field and $F$ its maximal real subfield. We give general formulae of the root numbers of the Jacobian varieties of the Fermat curves $X^p+Y^p=δ$ where $δ$ is an integer. As an application of these general formulae, we derive the equidistribution of the root numbers for the families of Jacobian varieties of the Fermat curves. When $p\nmid δ$, we bound the Selmer groups of these Jacobian varieties. Moreover, if $p$ is regular and all prime ideals of $K$ dividing $δ$ are inert in $K/F$, the Selmer groups are explicitly determined an…
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 …
The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture predicts that the parity of the algebraic rank of an abelian variety over a global field should be controlled by the expected sign of the functional equation of its $L$-function, known as the global root number. In this paper, we give explicit formulae for the local root numbers as a product of Jacobi symbols. This enables one to compute the global root number, generalising work of Rohrlich who studies the case of elliptic curves. We provide similar formulae for the root numbers after twisting the abelian variety by a self-dual Artin representation. As …
Let $f(x)$ be a degree $(2g+1)$ monic polynomial with coefficients in an algebraically closed field $K$ with $char(K)\ne 2$ and without repeated roots. Let $\mathfrak{R}\subset K$ be the $(2g+1)$-element set of roots of $f(x)$. Let $\mathcal{C}: y^2=f(x)$ be an odd degree genus $g$ hyperelliptic curve over $K$. Let $J$ be the jacobian of $\mathcal{C}$ and $J[2]\subset J(K)$ the (sub)group of its points of order dividing $2$. We identify $\mathcal{C}$ with the image of its canonical embedding into $J$ (the infinite point of $\mathcal{C}$ goes to the identity element of $J$). Let $P=(a,b)\in \ma…
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 $K$ 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…
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.
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 …
Results in $p$-adic transcendence theory are applied to two problems in the Chabauty-Coleman method. The first is a question of McCallum and Poonen regarding repeated roots of Coleman integrals. The second is to give lower bounds on the $p$-adic distance between rational points in terms of the heights of a set of Mordell-Weil generators of the Jacobian. We also explain how, in some cases, a conjecture on the 'Wieferich statistics' of Jacobians of curves implies a bound on the height of rational points of curves of small rank, in terms of the usual invariants of the curve and the height of Mord…
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 2000, Galbraith and McKee heuristically derived a formula that estimates the probability that a randomly chosen elliptic curve over a fixed finite prime field has a prime number of rational points. We show how their heuristics can be generalized to Jacobians of curves of higher genus. We then elaborate this in genus 2 and study various related issues, such as the probability of cyclicity and the probability of primality of the number of points on the curve itself. Finally, we discuss the asymptotic behavior as the genus tends to infinity.
We investigate the rank gain of elliptic curves, and more generally, Jacobian varieties, over non-Galois extensions whose Galois closure has Galois group permutation-isomorphic to a prescribed group $G$ (in short, "$G$-extensions"). In particular, for alternating groups and (an infinite family of) projective linear groups $G$, we show that most elliptic curves over (e.g.) $\mathbb{Q}$ gain rank over infinitely many $G$-extensions, conditional only on the parity conjecture. More generally, we provide a theoretical criterion which allows to deduce that "many" elliptic curves gain rank over infin…
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 this paper, we determine all modular Jacobian varieties $J_1(M,MN)$ over the number field $\mathbb{Q}(ζ_M)$ with the Mordell-Weil rank zero following the method of Derickx, Etropolski, van Hoeij, Morrow, and Zureick-Brown.
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…
We study the endomorphism ring $End(J(C))$ of the complex jacobian $J(C)$ of a curve $y^p=f(x)$ where $p$ is an odd prime and $f(x)$ is a polynomial with complex coefficiens of degree $n>4$ and without multiple roots. Assume that all the coefficients of $f$ lie in a (sub)field $K$ and the Galois group of $f$ over $K$ is either the full symmetric group $S_n$ or the alternating group $A_n$. Then we prove that $End(J(C))$ is the ring of integers in the in the $p$th cyclotomic field, if $p$ is a Fermat prime (e.g., $p=3,5,17,257$). Similar results for $p=2$ (the case of hyperelliptic curves) were …
In Dokchitser (2007) it is shown that given an elliptic curve $E$ defined over a number field $K$ then there are infinitely many degree 3 extensions $L/K$ for which the rank of $E(L)$ is larger than $E(K)$. In the present paper we show that the same is true if we replace 3 by any prime number. This result follows from a more general result establishing a similar property for the Jacobian varieties associated with curves defined by an equation of the shape $g(y) = f(x)$ where $f$ and $g$ are polynomials of coprime degree.
We use methods for computing Picard numbers of reductions of K3 surfaces in order to study the decomposability of Jacobians over number fields and the variance of Mordell-Weil ranks of families of Jacobians over different ground fields. For example, we give examples of surfaces whose Picard numbers jump in rank at all primes of good reduction using Mordell-Weil groups of Jacobians and show that the genus of curves over number fields whose Jacobians are isomorphic to a product of elliptic curves satisfying certain reduction conditions is bounded. The isomorphism result addresses the number fiel…
For a prime number $q\geq 5$ and a positive integer $N$ prime to $q$, Ribet proved the action of the Hecke algebra on the component group of the Jacobian variety of the modular curve of level $Nq$ at $q$ is "Eisenstein", which means the Hecke operator $T_\ell$ acts by $\ell+1$ when $\ell$ is a prime number not dividing the level. In this paper, we completely compute the action of the Hecke algebra on this component group by a careful study of supersingular points with extra automorphisms.
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.
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 $k$.
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…
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.
We construct examples of number fields which are not isomorphic but for which their idele class groups are isomorphic. We also construct examples of projective algebraic curves which are not isomorphic but for which their Jacobian varieties are isomorphic. Both are constructed using an example in group theory provided by Leonard Scott of a finite group $G$ and subgroups $H_1$ and $H_2$ which are not conjugate in $G$ but for which the $G$-module ${\mathbb Z}[G/H_1]$ is isomorphic to ${\mathbb Z}[G/H_2]$.
Given a prime number l greater than or equal to 5, we construct an infinite family of three-dimensional abelian varieties over Q such that, for any A/Q in the family, the Galois representation ρ_{A, l}: Gal_Q -> GSp(6, l) attached to the l-torsion of A is surjective. Any such variety A will be the Jacobian of a genus 3 curve over Q whose respective reductions at two auxiliary primes we prescribe to provide us with generators of Sp(6, l).
We develop a method to calculate the Néron-Tate height of tautological integral cycles on jacobians of curves defined over number fields. As examples we obtain closed expressions for the Néron-Tate height of the difference surface, the Abel-Jacobi images of the square of the curve, and of any symmetric theta divisor. As applications we obtain a new effective positive lower bound for the essential minimum of any Abel-Jacobi image of the curve and a proof, in the case of jacobians, of a formula proposed by Autissier relating the Faltings height of a principally polarized abelian variety with the…
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…
For $m \in {\mathbb N}$, let $S_m$ be the Suzuki curve defined over ${\mathbb F}_{2^{2m+1}}$. It is well-known that $S_m$ is supersingular, but the p-torsion group scheme of its Jacobian is not known. The a-number is an invariant of the isomorphism class of the p-torsion group scheme. In this paper, we compute a closed formula for the a-number of $S_m$ using the action of the Cartier operator on $H^0(S_m,Ω^1)$.
In this article we prove lower and upper bounds for class numbers of algebraic curves defined over finite fields. These bounds turn out to be better than most of the previously known bounds obtained using combinatorics. The methods used in the proof are essentially those from the explicit asymptotic theory of global fields. We thus provide a concrete application of effective results from the asymptotic theory of global fields and their zeta-functions.
Let $A/\mathbb{Q}$ be a Jacobian variety and let $F$ be a totally real, tamely ramified, abelian number field. Given a character $ψ$ of $F/\mathbb{Q}$, Deligne's Period Conjecture asserts the algebraicity of the suitably normalised value $\mathcal{L}(A,ψ,1)$ at $z=1$ of the Hasse-Weil-Artin $L$-function of the $ψ$-twist of $A$. We formulate a conjecture regarding the integrality properties of the family of normalised $L$-values $(\mathcal{L}(A,ψ,1))_ψ$, and its relation to the Tate-Shafarevich group of $A$ over $F$. We numerically investigate our conjecture through $p$-adic congruence relation…
Let $\mathcal{X}$ be a Riemann surface of genus $g>0$ defined over a number field $K$ which is a degree $d$-covering of $\mathbb{P}^1_K$. In this paper we show the existence of infinitely many linearly disjoint degree $d$-extensions $L/K$ over which the Jacobian of $\mathcal{X}$ gains rank. In the case where 0, 1 and $\infty$ are the only branch points, and there is an automorphism $σ$ of $\mathcal{X}$ which cyclically permutes these branch points, we obtain the same result for the Jacobian of $\mathcal{X}/σ$. In particular if $\mathcal{X}$ is the Klein quartic, then the construction provides …
We show that a genus $2$ curve over a number field whose jacobian has complex multiplication will usually have stable bad reduction at some prime. We prove this by computing the Faltings height of the jacobian in two different ways. First, we use a formula by Colmez and Obus specific to the CM case and valid when the CM field is an abelian extension of the rationals. This formula links the height and the logarithmic derivatives of an $L$-function. The second formula involves a decomposition of the height into local terms based on a hyperelliptic model. We use results of Igusa, Liu, and Saito t…
Let $K$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic different from 2, $g$ a positive integer, $f(x)$ a degree $(2g+1)$ polynomial with coefficients in $K$ and without multiple roots, $C:y^2=f(x)$ the corresponding genus $g$ hyperelliptic curve over K, and $J$ the jacobian of $C$. We identify $C$ with the image of its canonical embedding into $J$ (the infinite point of $C$ goes to the identity element of $J$). It is well known that for each $\mathfrak{b} \in J(K)$ there are exactly $2^{2g}$ elements $\mathfrak{a} \in J(K)$ such that $2\mathfrak{a}=\mathfrak{b}$. M. Stoll constructed an a…
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 consider the issue of when the L-polynomial of one curve over $\F_q$ divides the L-polynomial of another curve. We prove a theorem which shows that divisibility follows from a hypothesis that two curves have the same number of points over infinitely many extensions of a certain type, and one other assumption. We also present an application to a family of curves arising from a conjecture about exponential sums. We make our own conjecture about L-polynomials, and prove that this is equivalent to the exponential sums conjecture.
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 $…
We study the problem of efficiently constructing a curve C of genus 2 over a finite field F for which either the curve C itself or its Jacobian has a prescribed number N of F-rational points. In the case of the Jacobian, we show that any `CM-construction' to produce the required genus-2 curves necessarily takes time exponential in the size of its input. On the other hand, we provide an algorithm for producing a genus-2 curve with a given number of points that, heuristically, takes polynomial time for most input values. We illustrate the practical applicability of this algorithm by constructing…
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 the next paper (Progress in Math. 195(2001), 473--490) we extended this result to the case of certain``smaller'' Galois groups. In particular, we treated the infinite s…
The Jacobian group (also known as the critical group or sandpile group) is an important invariant of a finite, connected graph $X$; it is a finite abelian group whose cardinality is equal to the number of spanning trees of $X$ (Kirchhoff's Matrix Tree Theorem). A specific type of covering graph, called a derived graph, that is constructed from a voltage graph with voltage group $G$ is the object of interest in this paper. Towers of derived graphs are studied by using aspects of classical Iwasawa Theory (from number theory). Formulas for the orders of the Sylow $p$-subgroups of Jacobians in an …
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.)
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 variation of Mordell-Weil ranks in the Jacobians of curves in a pro-p tower over a fixed number field. In particular, we show that under mild conditions the Mordell-Weil rank of a Jacobian in the tower is bounded above by a constant multiple of its dimension. In the case of the tower of Fermat curves, we show that the constant can be taken arbitrarily close to 1. The main result is used in the forthcoming paper of Guillermo Mantilla-Soler on the Mordell-Weil rank of the modular Jacobian J(Np^m).
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.
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.
We give algorithms for computing with divisors on projective curves over finite fields, and with their Jacobians, using the algorithmic representation of projective curves developed by Khuri-Makdisi. We show that many desirable operations can be done efficiently in this setting: decomposing divisors into prime divisors; computing pull-backs and push-forwards of divisors under finite morphisms, and hence Picard and Albanese maps on Jacobians; generating uniformly random divisors and points on Jacobians; computing Frobenius maps and Kummer maps; and finding a basis for the $l$-torsion of the Pic…
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…
This paper is concerned with some Algebraic Geometry codes on Jacobians of genus 2 curves. We derive a lower bound for the minimum distance of these codes from an upper "Weil type" bound for the number of rational points on irreducible (possibly singular or non-absolutely irreducible) curves lying on an abelian surface over a finite field.
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.