Let V_D be the Shimura curve over \Q attached to the indefinite rational quaternion algebra of discriminant D. In this note we investigate the group of automorphisms of V_D and prove that, in many cases, it is the Atkin-Lehner group. Moreover, we determine the family of bielliptic Shimura curves over \bar \Q and over \Q and we use it to study the set of rational points on V_D over quadratic fields. Finally, we obtain explicit equations of elliptic Atkin-Lehner quotients of V_D.
We study the group of automorphisms of Shimura curves $X_0(D, N)$ attached to an Eichler order of square-free level $N$ in an indefinite rational quaternion algebra of discriminant $D>1$. We prove that, when the genus $g$ of the curve is greater than or equal to 2, $\Aut (X_0(D, N))$ is a 2-elementary abelian group which contains the group of Atkin-Lehner involutions $W_0(D, N)$ as a subgroup of index 1 or 2. It is conjectured that $\Aut (X_0(D, N)) = W_0(D, N)$ except for finitely many values of $(D, N)$ and we provide criteria that allow us to show that this is indeed often the case. Our met…
Quaternionic Shimura surfaces are quotient of the bidisc by an irreducible cocompact arithmetic group. In the present paper we are interested in (smooth) quaternionic Shimura surfaces admitting an automorphism with one dimensional fixed locus; such automorphisms are involutions. We propose a new construction of surfaces of general type with $q=p_{g}=0$ as quotients of quaternionic Shimura surfaces by such involutions. These quotients have finite fundamental group.
In this paper, we seek an appropriate definition for a Shimura curve of Hodge type in positive characteristics, i.e. a characterization, in terms of geometry mod p, of curves in positive characteristics which are reduction of Shimura curves over the complex field. Specifically, we study the liftablity of a curve in moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties over k, char k=p. We show that some conditions on the l-adic monodromy over such a curve imply that this curve can be lifted to a Shimura curve.
We compute the arithmetic volumes of integral models of unitary Shimura curves. This establishes the base case of an inductive argument to compute the arithmetic volumes of unitary Shimura varieties of higher dimension, to appear in subsequent work of Bruinier and the author.
By considering the intersections of Shimura curves and Humbert surfaces on the Siegel modular threefold, we obtain new class number relations. The result is a higher-dimensional analogue of the classical Hurwitz-Kronecker class number relation.
This paper concerns two families of divisors, which we call the `orthogonal' and `unitary' special cycles, defined on integral models of Shimura curves. The orthogonal family was studied extensively by Kudla-Rapoport-Yang, who showed that they are closely related to the Fourier coefficients of modular forms of weight 3/2, while the `unitary' divisors are analogues of cycles appearing in more recent work of Kudla-Rapoport on unitary Shimura varieties. Our main result shows that these two families are related by (a formal version of) the Shimura lift.
We compute the canonical model of the cover of Shimura curves $X_0(2) \to X(1)$ for the cubic field of discriminant 13^2 described at the end of Elkies' paper "Shimura curves for level 3 subgroups of the (2,3,7) triangle group". Last, we list the coordinates of some rational CM points on X(1).
In this paper we prove that there are finitely many modular curves that admit a smooth plane model. Moreover, if the degree of the model is greater than or equal to 19, no such curve exists. For modular curves of Shimura type we show that none can admit a smooth plane model of degree 5, 6 or 7. Further, if a modular curve of Shimura type admits a smooth plane model of degree 8 we show that it must be a twist of one of four curves.
We present explicit models for non-elliptic genus one Shimura curves X_0(D, N) with Gamma_0(N)-level structure arising from an indefinite quaternion algebra of reduced discriminant D, and Atkin-Lehner quotients of them. In addition, we discuss and extend Jordan's work in his Ph. D Thesis on points with complex multiplication on Shimura curves.
We show how to construct counter-examples to the Hasse principle over the field of rational numbers on Atkin-Lehner quotients of Shimura curves and on twisted forms of Shimura curves by Atkin-Lehner involutions. A particular example is the quotient of the Shimura curve X attached to the indefinite rational quaternion algebra of discriminant 23*107 by the Atkin-Lehner involution w107. The quadratic twist of X by Q(sqrt{-23}) with respect to this involution is also a counter-example to the Hasse principle over Q.
We consider two families of arithmetic divisors defined on integral models of Shimura curves. The first was studied by Kudla, Rapoport and Yang, who proved that if one assembles these divisors in a formal generating series, one obtains the q-expansion of a modular form of weight 3/2. The present work concerns the Shimura lift of this modular form: we identify the Shimura lift with a generating series comprised of unitary divisors, which arose in recent work of Kudla and Rapoport regarding cycles on Shimura varieties of unitary type. In the prequel to this paper, the author considered the geome…
Elkies proposed a procedure for constructing explicit towers of curves, and gave two towers of Shimura curves as relevant examples. In this paper, we present a new explicit tower of Shimura curves constructed by using this procedure.
It is known that K3 surfaces S whose Picard number rho (= rank of the Neron-Severi group of S) is at least 19 are parametrized by modular curves X, and these modular curves X include various Shimura modular curves associated with congruence subgroups of quaternion algebras over Q. In a family of such K3 surfaces, a surface has rho=20 if and only if it corresponds to a CM point on X. We use this to compute equations for Shimura curves, natural maps between them, and CM coordinates well beyond what could be done by working with the curves directly as we did in ``Shimura Curve Computations'' (199…
By constructing suitable Borcherds forms on Shimura curves and using Schofer's formula for norms of values of Borcherds forms at CM-points, we determine all the equations of hyperelliptic Shimura curves $X_0^D(N)$. As a byproduct, we also address the problem of whether a modular form on Shimura curves $X_0^D(N)/W_{D,N}$ with a divisor supported on CM-divisors can be realized as a Borcherds form, where $X_0^D(N)/W_{D,N}$ denotes the quotient of $X_0^D(N)$ by all the Atkin-Lehner involutions. The construction of Borcherds forms is done by solving certain integer programming problems.
Let D be a quaternion division algebra over a totally real number field F which splits exactly at one infinite place. We assume that there is a p-adic place where D doesn't split. Then the associated Shimura curve has a Cherednik unifomization by the p-adic upper half plane. We define an integral model of the Shimura curve an over the integers O of this p-adic place. We prove an uniformization theorem for the completion of the model over the formal spectrum Spf O.
We show that conjugation by an automorphism of the complex numbers (as an abstract field) may change the topological fundamental group of a locally symmetric variety over C. As a consequence, we obtain a large class of algebraic varieties defined over number fields with the property that different embeddings of the number field into C give complex varieties with nonisomorphic fundamental groups.
We present explicit models for Shimura curves X_D and Atkin-Lehner quotients X_D/w_m of them of genus 2. We show that several equations conjectured by Kurihara are correct and compute for them the kernel of Ribet's isogeny J_0(D)^{new} --> J_D between the new part of the Jacobian of the modular curve X_0(D) and the Jacobian of X_D.
The object of this work is to present the status of art of an open problem: to provide an analogue for Shimura curves of the Ihara's lemma \cite{Ihara73} which holds for modular curves. We will describe our direct result towards the "Problem of Ihara" and we will present some possible approaches to it, giving a formulation of our conjecture in terms of congruence subgroup problem for quaternion algebras. Since some modular forms can be reinterpreted as elements of the cohomology of Shimura curves, we will describe a consequence of the "Problem of Ihara" about congruence modules of modular form…
The main goal of this article is to give an explicit rigid analytic uniformization of the maximal toric quotient of the Jacobian of a Shimura curve over the field of rational numbers at a prime dividing exactly the level. This result can be viewed as complementary to the classical theorem of Cerednik and Drinfeld which provides rigid analytic uniformizations at primes dividing the discriminant. As a corollary, we offer a proof of a conjecture formulated by M. Greenberg in his paper on Stark-Heegner points and quaternionic Shimura curves, thus making Greenberg's construction of local points on …
Given a rational elliptic curve E, a suitable imaginary quadratic field K and a quaternionic Hecke eigenform g of weight 2 obtained from E by level raising such that the sign in the functional equation for L_K(E,s) (respectively, L_K(g,1)) is -1 (respectively, +1), we prove a ``Jochnowitz congruence'' between the algebraic part of L'_K(E,1) (expressed in terms of Heegner points on Shimura curves) and the algebraic part of L_K(g,1). This establishes a relation between Zhang's formula of Gross-Zagier type for central derivatives of L-series and his formula of Gross type for special values. Our r…
We prove a variant of the reciprocity laws for CM abelian varieties, CM K3 surfaces, and CM points on Shimura varieties. Given a CM object over the complex numbers, our variation describes the set of all models over a given number field $F$ in terms of associated representations of the absolute Galois group of $F$. An essential feature is that we work with stacky Shimura varieties to deal with objects that have non-trivial automorphisms. To prove the result on K3 surfaces, we show that the stack of polarized K3 surfaces of given degree is an open substack of a certain Shimura stack. The precis…
We develop a descent criterion for $K$-linear abelian categories. Using recent advances in the Langlands correspondence due to Abe, we build a correspondence between certain rank 2 local systems and certain Barsotti-Tate groups on complete curves over a finite field. We conjecture that such Barsotti-Tate groups "come from" a family of fake elliptic curves. As an application of these ideas, we provide a criterion for being a Shimura curve over $\mathbb{F}_q$. Along the way, we formulate a conjecture on the field-of-coefficients of certain compatible systems.
In this work, we set up a theory of p-adic modular forms over Shimura curves over totally real fields which allows us to consider also non-integral weights. In particular, we define an analogue of the sheaves of k-th invariant differentials over the Shimura curves we are interested in, for any p-adic character. In this way, we are able to introduce the notion of overconvergent modular form of any p-adic weight. Moreover, our sheaves can be put in p-adic families over a suitable rigid-analytic space, that parametrizes the weights. Finally, we define Hecke operators, including the U operator, th…
Let C be an algebraic curve defined over a number field K, of positive genus and without K-rational points. We conjecture that there exists some extension field L over which C violates the Hasse principle, i.e., has points everywhere locally but not globally. We show that our conjecture holds for all but finitely many Shimura curves of the form X^D_0(N)_{/Q} or X^D_1(N)_{/Q}, where D > 1 and N are coprime squarefree positive integers. The proof uses a variation on a theorem of Frey, a gonality bound of Abramovich, and an analysis of local points of small degree.
In this article we study the Gross-Schoen diagonal cycle on a triple product of Shimura curves at a place of bad reduction. We relate the image of the diagonal cycle under the Abel-Jacobi map to certain period integral that governs the central critical value of the Garrett-Rankin type triple product $L$-function via level raising congruences. As an application we prove certain rank $0$ case of the Bloch-Kato conjecture for the symmetric cube motive of a weight $2$ modular form.
We show that a given rational Shimura curve Y with strictly maximal Higgs field in the moduli space of g-dimensional abelian varieties does not generically intersect the Schottky locus for large g. We achieve this by using a result of Viehweg and Zuo which says that if Y parameterizes a family of curves of genus g, then the corresponding family of Jacobians is isogenous over Y to the g-fold product of a modular family of elliptic curves. After reducing the situation from the field of complex numbers to a finite field, we will see, combining the Weil and Sato-Tate conjectures, that this is impo…
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 give some methods for computing equations for certain Shimura curves, natural maps between them, and special points on them. We then illustrate these methods by working out several examples in varying degrees of detail. For instance, we compute coordinates for all the rational CM points on the curves "X(1)" associated with the quaternion algebras over Q ramified at {2,3}, {2,5}, {2,7}, and {3,5}. We conclude with a list of open questions that may point the way to further computational investigation of these curves.
Let O be a maximal order in a totally indefinite quaternion algebra over a totally real number field. In this note we study the locus Q_O of quaternionic multiplication by O in the moduli space A_g of principally polarized abelian varieties of even dimension g with particular emphasis in the two-dimensional case. We describe Q_O as a union of Atkin-Lehner quotients of Shimura varieties and we compute the number of irreducible components of Q_O in terms of class numbers of CM-fields.
Shimura curves on Shimura surfaces have been a candidate for counterexamples to the bounded negativity conjecture. We prove that they do not serve this purpose: there are only finitely many whose self-intersection number lies below a given bound. Previously, this result has been shown in [BHK+13] for compact Hilbert modular surfaces using the Bogomolov-Miyaoka-Yau inequality. Our approach uses equidistribution and works uniformly for all Shimura surfaces.
Oort has conjectured that there do not exist Shimura curves lying generically in the Torelli locus of curves of genus $g \geq 8$. We show that there do not exist one-dimensional Shimura families of semi-stable curves of genus $g\geq 5$ of Mumford type. We also show that there do not exist Shimura curves lying generically in the Torelli locus of hyperelliptic curves of genus $g\geq 8$. The first result proves a slightly weaker form of the conjecture for the case of Shimura curves of Mumford type. The second result proves the conjecture for the Torelli locus of hyperelliptic curves. We also pres…
In this paper we construct infinitely many Shimura curves contained in the locus of Jacobians of genus four curves. All Jacobians in these families are ${\mathbb Z}/3$ covers of varying elliptic curves that appear in a geometric construction of Pirola, and include an example of a Shimura-Teichmuller curve that parameterizes Jacobians that are suitable ${\mathbb Z}/6$ covers of ${\mathbb P}^1$. We compute explicitly the period matrices of the Shimura curves we construct using the original construction of Shimura for moduli spaces of abelian varieties with automorphisms.
We prove an hyperbolic analogue of the Bloch-Ochiai theorem about the Zariski closure of holomorphic curves in abelian varieties. We consider the case of non compact Shimura varieties completing the proof of the result for all Shimura varieties. The statement analysed was first formulated and proven by Ullmo and Yafaev for compact Shimura varieties.
In this paper, we seek an appropriate definition for a Shimura curve of Hodge type in positive characteristics, i.e. a characterization of curves in positive characteristics which are reduction of Shimura curve over the complex field. Specifically, we study the liftablity of a curve in moduli space of principally polarized abelian fourfolds over k, char k=p. We show that some conditions on the crystalline Hodge cycles over such a curve imply that this curve can be lifted to a Shimura curve.
We find explicit projective models of a compact Shimura curve and of a (non-compact) surface which are the moduli spaces of principally polarised abelian fourfolds with an automorphism of order five. The surface has a 24-nodal canonical model in IP^4 which is the complete intersection of two S_5-invariant cubics. It is dominated by a Hilbert modular surface and we give a modular interpretation for this. We also determine the L-series of these varieties as well as those of several modular covers of the Shimura curve.
We seek an appropriate definition for a Shimura curve of Hodge type in positive characteristics via characterizing curves in positive characteristics which are reduction of Shimura curve over $\mathbb{C}$. In this paper, we study the liftablity of a curve in the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties over $k, \text{char} k=p$. We show that in the generic ordinary case, some tensor decomposition of the isocrystal associated to the family imply that this curve can be lifted to a Shimura curve.
Oort has conjectured that there do not exist Shimura curves contained generically in the Torelli locus of genus-$g$ curves when $g$ is large enough. In this paper we prove the Oort conjecture for Shimura curves of Mumford type and Shimura curves parameterizing principally polarized $g$-dimensional abelian varieties isogenous to $g$-fold self-products of elliptic curves for $g>11$. We also prove that there do not exist Shimura curves contained generically in the Torelli locus of hyperelliptic curves of genus $g>7$. As a consequence, we obtain a finiteness result regarding smooth genus-$g$ curve…
Following work by Ullmo and Yafaev, we propose and prove an analogue of the Bloch-Ochiai theorem in the context of mixed Shimura varieties. We follow the strategy and use results of previous articles by Ullmo and Yafaev and the author plus consequences of the Ax-Lindemann-Weierstrass theorem for mixed Shimura varieties due to Gao.
We study the bounded negativity conjecture for non-quaternionic Hilbert modular surfaces and give an explicit bound for the special case of Hirzebruch-Zagier curves on Hilbert modular surfaces.
We prove that a Shimura curve in the Siegel modular variety is not generically contained in the open Torelli locus as long as the rank of unitary part in its canonical Higgs bundle satisfies a numerical upper bound. As an application we show that the Coleman-Oort conjecture holds for Shimura curves associated to partial corestriction upon a suitable choice of parameters, which generalizes a construction due to Mumford.
For a very general product $A$ of seven or more elliptic curves, every rational curve on the Kummer variety of $A$ projects trivially onto the Kummer variety of at least one of its factors. As a consequence, a very general member of certain families of abelian varieties parametrized by connected Shimura varieties of unitary type has the property that its Kummer variety has no rational curves.
We determine the Shimura modular curve X_0(3) and the Jacobian of the Shimura modular curve X_1(3) associated with the congruence subgroups Gamma_0(3), Gamma_1(3) of the (2,3,7) triangle group. This group is known to be arithmetic and associated with a quaternion algebra A/K ramified at two of the three real places of K=Q(\cos 2π/7) and at no finite primes of K. Since the rational prime 3 is inert in K, the covering X_0(3)/X(1) has degree 28 and Galois group PSL_2(F_27). We determine X_0(3) by computing this cover. We find that X_0(3) is an elliptic curve of conductor 147=3*7^2 over Q, as is t…
We study Shimura curves of PEL type in the space of polarised abelian varieties $A^δ_p$ generically contained in the ramified Prym locus. We generalise to ramified double covers, the construction done in [10] in the unramified case and in the case of two ramification points. Namely, we construct families of double covers which are compatible with a fixed group action on the base curve. We only consider the case of one-dimensional families and where the quotient of the base curve by the group is ${\mathbb P}^1$. Using computer algebra we obtain 184 Shimura curves contained in the (ramified) Pry…
We study Shimura curves of PEL type in $\mathsf{A}_g$ generically contained in the Prym locus. We study both the unramified Prym locus, obtained using étale double covers, and the ramified Prym locus, corresponding to double covers ramified at two points. In both cases we consider the family of all double covers compatible with a fixed group action on the base curve. We restrict to the case where the family is 1-dimensional and the quotient of the base curve by the group is $\mathbb{P}^1$. We give a simple criterion for the image of these families under the Prym map to be a Shimura curve. Usin…
