To any unramified double cover $π:\tilde C \to C$ of projective irreducible and nonsingular curves one associates the Prym variety $P = P(π)$. For $C$ nonhyperelliptic of genus $g \geq 6$ we consider the natural embedding $\tilde C \subset P$ (defined up to translation) of $\tilde C$ into $P$ and we study the local structure of the Hilbert scheme $Hilb^P$ of $P$ at the point
$[\tilde C]$. We show that this structure is related with the local geometry of the Prym map, or more precisely with the validity of the infinitesimal version of Torelli's theorem for Pryms at $[π]$
Algebraic curves in Hilbert modular surfaces that are totally geodesic for the Kobayashi metric have very interesting geometric and arithmetic properties, e.g. they are rigid. There are very few methods known to construct such algebraic geodesics that we call Kobayashi curves. We give an explicit way of constructing Kobayashi curves using determinants of derivatives of theta functions. This construction also allows to calculate the Euler characteristics of the Teichmueller curves constructed by McMullen using Prym covers.
The Prym variety for a branched double covering of a nonsingular projective curve is defined as a polarized abelian variety. We prove that any double covering of an elliptic curve which has more than $4$ branch points is recovered from its Prym variety.
We prove an extension of the Babbage-Enriques-Petri theorem for semi-canonical curves. We apply this to show that the Prym variety of a generic element of a codimension $k$ subvariety of $\mathcal{R}_{g}$ is not isogenous to another distinct Prym variety, under some mild assumption on $k$.
We give an upper bound for the dimension of a germ of a totally geodesic submanifold, and hence of a Shimura variety of A_{g-1}, contained in the Prym locus. First we give such a bound for a germ passing through a Prym variety of a k-gonal curve in terms of the gonality k. Then we deduce a bound only depending on the genus g.
We construct a relative Chow-Kunneth decomposition for a conic bundle over a surface such that the middle projector gives the Prym variety of the associated double covering of the discriminant of the conic bundle. This gives a refinement (up to an isogeny) of Beauville's theorem on the relation between the intermediate Jacobian of the conic bundle and the Prym variety of the double covering.
Let $X_1, ..., X_m$ denote smooth projective curves of genus $g_i \geq 2$ over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 and let $n$ denote any integer at least equal to $1+\max_{i=1}^m g_i$. We show that the product $JX_1 \times ... \times JX_m$ of the corresponding Jacobian varieties admits the structure of a Prym-Tyurin variety of exponent $n^{m-1}$. This exponent is considerably smaller than the exponent of the structure of a Prym-Tyurin variety known to exist for an arbitrary principally polarized abelian variety. Moreover it is given by explicit correspondences.
We prove the generic injectivity of the Prym map, sending a double covering of an elliptic curve ramified at r>4 points to its polarized Prym variety. For r=6 the map is birational.
Let $f\colon S'\longrightarrow S$ be a cyclic branched covering of smooth projective surfaces over $\mathbb{C}$ whose branch locus $Δ\subset S$ is a smooth ample divisor. Pick a very ample complete linear system $|\mathcal{H}|$ on $S$, such that the polarized surface $(S, |\mathcal{H}|)$ is not a scroll nor has rational hyperplane sections. For the general member $[C]\in|\mathcal{H}|$ consider the $μ_{n}$-equivariant isogeny decomposition of the Prym variety $Prym(C'/C)$ of the induced covering $f\colon C'= f^{-1}(C)\longrightarrow C$:\[Prym(C'/C)\sim\prod_{d|n,\ d\neq1}\mathcal{P}_{d}(C'/C).\…
Let p:C' -> C be an unramified double covering of irreducible smooth curves and let P be the attached Prym variety. We prove the schematic theta-dual equalities in the Prym variety T(C')=V^2 and T(V^2)=C', where V^2 is the Brill-Noether locus of P associated to p considered by Welters. As an application we prove a Torelli Theorem analogous to the fact that the g-th symmetric product of a curve D of genus g determines the curve.
For an Abel-Prym curve contained in a Prym variety, we determine the cohomological support loci of its twisted ideal sheaves and the dimension of its theta-dual.
This article shows that on a generic principally polarized abelian variety of dimension five the $\mathbb{Q}$-vector space of algebraic equivalences among the 27 Abel-Prym curves has dimension 20.
Let p:C-->Y be a covering of smooth, projective curves which is a composition of π:C-->C' of degree 2 and g:C'-->Y of degree n. Let f:X-->Y be the covering of degree 2^n, where the curve X parametrizes the liftings in C^{(n)} of the fibers of g:C'-->Y. Let P(X,δ) be the associated Prym-Tyurin variety, known to be isogenous to the Prym variety P(C,C'). Most of the results in the paper focus on calculating the polarization type of the restriction of the canonical polarization of JX on P(X,δ). We obtain the polarization type when n=3. When Y=P^1 we conjecture that P(X,δ) is isomorphic to the dual…
Given an Enriques surface $T$, its universal K3 cover $f: S\to T$, and a genus $g$ linear system $|C|$ on $T$, we construct the relative Prym variety $P_H=\Prym_{v, H}(\D/\CC)$, where $\CC\to |C|$ and $\D\to |f^*C|$ are the universal families, $v$ is the Mukai vector $(0,[D], 2-2g)$ and $H$ is a polarization on $S$. The relative Prym variety is a $(2g-2)$-dimensional possibly singular variety, whose smooth locus is endowed with a hyperkähler structure. This variety is constructed as the closure of the fixed locus of a symplectic birational involution defined on the moduli space $M_{v,H}(S)$. T…
Let $(C,ι)$ be a stable curve with an involution. Following a classical construction one can define its Prym variety $P$, which in this case turns out to be a semiabelian group variety and usually not complete. In this paper we study the question whether there are ``good'' compactifications of $P$ in analogy to compactified Jacobians. The answer to this question depends on whether we consider degenerations of principally polarized Prym varieties or degenerations with the induced (non-principal) polarization. We describe degeneration data of such degenerations. The main application of our theor…
We show that the Prym variety associated to a triple covering f: Y --> X of curves is principally polarized of dimension > 1, if and only if f is non-cyclic, etale and X is of genus 2. We investigate some properties of these Prym varieties and their moduli.
Let $k$ be a field of characteristic zero containing a primitive $n$-th root of unity. Let $C^0_n$ be a singular plane curve of degree $n$ over $k$ admitting an order $n$ automorphism, $n$ nodes as the singularities, and $C_n$ be its normalization. In this paper we study the factors of Prym variety $\mbox{Prym}(\widetilde{C}_n/C_n)$ associated to the double cover $\widetilde{C}_n$ of $C_n$ exactly ramified at the points obtained by the blow-up of the singularities. We provide explicit models of some algebraic curves related to the construction of $\mbox{Prym}(\widetilde{C}_n/C_n)$ as a Prym va…
Given the Prym variety of an étale double cover one can define analogues of the classical Brill-Noether loci on Jacobians of curves. Recent work by Lahoz and Naranjo shows that the Brill-Noether locus $V^2$ completely determines the covering. In this paper we describe the singular locus and the irreducible components of $V^2$.
In a previous paper, the authors proved that the Prym variety of any non-cyclic etale triple cover of a smooth curve of genus 2 is a Jacobian variety of dimension 2. This gives a map from the moduli space of such covers to the moduli space of Jacobian varieties of dimension 2. We extend this map to a proper map of a certain moduli space of admissible $S_3$-covers of genus 7 to the moduli space of principally polarized abelian surfaces. The main result is that this map is finite surjective of degree 10.
To any pair of coverings $f_i: X \ra X_i, i = 1,2$ of smooth projective curves one can associate an abelian subvariety of the Jacobian $J_X$, the Prym variety $P(f_1,f_2)$ of the pair $(f_1,f_2)$. In some cases we can compute the type of the restriction of the canonical principal polarization of $JX$. We obtain 2 families of Prym-Tyurin varieties of exponent 6.
We describe the isotypical decomposition of the Jacobian variety JW of the Galois extension W-->T of any fourfold cover of smooth connected irreducible projective complex curves X-->T, in terms of Prym's of intermediate covers. We also compute the degree of the isogenies involved and as a result we obtain new proofs of the bigonal and trigonal constructions. Furthermore, we give examples of families of Jacobians isogenous to a product of Jacobians and of families of Prym varieties isogenous to the product of elliptic curves.
In this paper, using a generalization of the notion of Prym variety for covers of quasi-projective varieties, we prove a structure theorem for the Mordell-Weil group of the abelian varieties over function fields that are twists of Abelian varieties by Galois covers of irreducible quasi-projective varieties. In particular, the resutls we obtain contribute in the construction of Jacobians (of covers of the projective line) of high rank.
It is well known that the Prym variety of an étale cyclic covering of a hyperelliptic curve is isogenous to the product of two Jacobians. Moreover, if the degree of the covering is odd or congruent to 2 mod 4, then the canonical isogeny is an isomorphism. We compute the degree of this isogeny in the remaining cases and show that only in the case of coverings of degree 4 it is an isomorphism.
We prove that the ramified Prym map $\mathcal P_{g, r}$ which sends a covering $π:D\longrightarrow C$ ramified in $r$ points to the Prym variety $P(π):=\text{Ker}(\text{Nm}_π)$ is an embedding for all $r\ge 6$ and for all $g(C)>0$. Moreover, by studying the restriction to the locus of coverings of hyperelliptic curves, we show that $\mathcal P_{g, 2}$ and $\mathcal P_{g, 4}$ have positive dimensional fibers.
We show that the non-Archimedean skeleton of the Prym variety associated to an unramified double cover of an algebraic curve is naturally isomorphic (as a principally polarized tropical abelian variety) to the tropical Prym variety of the associated tropical double cover. This confirms a conjecture by Jensen and the first author. We prove a new upper bound on the dimension of the Prym-Brill-Noether locus for generic unramified double covers of curves with fixed even gonality on the base. Our methods also give a new proof of the classical Prym-Brill-Noether Theorem for generic unramified double…
We prove that the Jacobian of a general curve C of genus g=2a+1, with g>4, can be realized as a Prym-Tyurin variety for the Brill-Noether curve W^1_{a+2}(C). As a consequence of this result we are able to compute the class of the sum of the secant divisors for the curve C, embedded with a complete linear series g^{a-1}_{3a-2}
In this paper we prove that the Prym map, from the space of double coverings of a curve of genus g with r branch points to the moduli space of abelian varieties, is generically injective if r>6 and g>1, r=6 and g>2, r=4 and g>4, r=2 and g>5. We also show that a very generic Prym variety of dimension at least 4 is not isogenous to a Jacobian.
Markushevich and Tikhomirov provided a construction of an irreducible symplectic V-manifold of dimension 4, the relative compactified Prym variety of a family of curves with involution, which is a Lagrangian fibration with polarization of type (1,2). We give a characterization of the dual Lagrangian fibration. We also identify the moduli space of Lagrangian fibrations of this type and show that the duality defines a rational involution on it.
It is known that the Jacobian of an algebraic curve which is a 2-fold covering of a hyperelliptic curve ramified at two points contains a hyperelliptic Prym variety. Its explicit algebraic description is applied to some of the integrable Henon-Heiles systems with a non-polynomial potential. Namely, we identify the generic complex invariant manifolds of the systems as a hyperelliptic Prym subvariety of the Jacobian of the spectral curve of the corresponding Lax representation. The exact discretization of the system is described as a translation on the Prym variety.
Let $P \cup P'$ be the two component Prym variety associated to an étale double cover $\tilde{C} \to C$ of a non-hyperelliptic curve of genus $g \geq 6$ and let $|2Ξ_0|$ and $|2Ξ_0'|$ be the linear systems of second order theta divisors on $P$ and $P'$ respectively. The component $P'$ contains canonically the Prym curve $\tilde{C}$. We show that the base locus of the subseries of divisors containing $\tilde{C} \subset P'$ is scheme-theoretically the curve $\tilde{C}$. We also prove canonical isomorphisms between some subseries of $|2Ξ_0|$ and $|2Ξ_0'|$ and some subseries of second order theta …
Given a tame Galois branched cover of curves pi: X -> Y with any finite Galois group G whose representations are rational, we compute the dimension of the (generalized) Prym variety corresponding to any irreducible representation ρof G. This formula can be applied to the study of algebraic integrable systems using Lax pairs, in particular systems associated with Seiberg-Witten theory. However, the formula is much more general and its computation and proof are entirely algebraic.
We construct two pencils of bielliptic curves of genus three and genus five. The first pencil is associated with a general abelian surface with a polarization of type $(1,2)$. The second pencil is related to the first by an unramified double cover, the Prym variety of which is canonically isomorphic to the Jacobian of a very general curve of genus two. Our results are obtained by analyzing suitable elliptic fibrations on the associated Kummer surfaces and rational double covers among them.
Given a possibly reducible and non-reduced spectral cover X over a smooth projective complex curve C we determine the group of connected components of the Prym variety Prym(X/C). As an immediate application we show that the finite group of n-torsion points of the Jacobian of C acts trivially on the cohomology of the twisted SL_n-Higgs moduli space up to the degree which is predicted by topological mirror symmetry. In particular this yields a new proof of a result of Harder--Narasimhan, showing that this finite group acts trivially on the cohomology of the twisted SL_n stable bundle moduli spac…
Let $π: Z \to X$ be Galois cover of smooth projective curves with Galois group $W$ a Weyl group of a simple Lie group $G$. For a dominant weight $λ$, we consider the intermediate curve $Y_λ= Z/\Stab(λ)$. One can realise a Prym variety $P_λ\subset \Jac(Y_λ)$ and we denote $φ_λ$ the restriction of the principal polarisation of $\Jac(Y_λ)$ upon $P_λ$. For two dominant weights $λ$ and $μ$, we construct a correspondence $Δ_{λμ}$ on $Y_λ\times Y_μ$ and calculate the pull-back of $φ_μ$ by $Δ_{λμ}$ in terms of $φ_λ$.
We prove an analogue of Kirchhoff's matrix tree theorem for computing the volume of the tropical Prym variety for double covers of metric graphs. We interpret the formula in terms of a semi-canonical decomposition of the tropical Prym variety, via a careful study of the tropical Abel-Prym map. In particular, we show that the map is harmonic, determine its degree at every cell of the decomposition, and prove that its global degree is $2^{g-1}$. Along the way, we use the Ihara zeta function to provide a new proof of the analogous result for finite graphs. As a counterpart, the appendix by Sebast…
We introduce two algebraic completely integrable analogues of the Mumford systems which we call hyperelliptic Prym systems, because every hyperelliptic Prym variety appears as a fiber of their momentum map. As an application we show that the generic fiber of the momentum map of the periodic Volterra lattice $$\dot a_i=a_i(a_{i-1}-a_{i+1}), \qquad i=1,...,n,\quad a_{n+1}=a_1,$$ is an affine part of a hyperelliptic Prym variety, obtained by removing $n$ translates of the theta divisor, and we conclude that this integrable system is algebraic completely integrable.
If $π: Y \to X$ is an unramified double cover of a smooth curve of genus $g$, then the Prym variety $P_π$ is a principally polarized abelian variety of dimension $g-1$. When $X$ is defined over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p$, it is not known in general which $p$-ranks can occur for $P_π$ under restrictions on the $p$-rank of $X$. In this paper, when $X$ is a non-hyperelliptic curve of genus $g=3$, we analyze the relationship between the Hasse-Witt matrices of $X$ and $P_π$. As an application, when $p \equiv 5 \bmod 6$, we prove that there exists a curve $X$ of genus $3…
In this text we prove that if an abelian variety $A$ admits an embedding into the Jacobian of a smooth projective curve $C$, and if we consider $Θ_A$ to be the divisor $Θ_C\cap A$, where $Θ_C$ denotes the theta divisor of $J(C)$, then the embedding of $Θ_A$ into $A$ induces an injective push-forward homomorphism (under certain conditions) at the level of Chow groups. We show that this is the case for every Prym varietiy arising from an unramified double cover of smooth projective curves. As a consequence we prove that there does not exist a universal codimension two cycle on the product of a v…
We study the behavior of theta characteristics on an algebraic curve under the specialization map to a tropical curve. We show that each effective theta characteristic on the tropical curve is the specialization of $2^{g-1}$ even theta characteristics and $2^{g-1}$ odd theta characteristics. We then study the relationship between unramified double covers of a tropical curve and its theta characteristics, and use this to define the tropical Prym variety.
In this paper we consider the Prym map for double coverings of curves of genus $g$ ramified at $r>0$ points. That is, the map associating to a double ramified covering its Prym variety. The generic Torelli theorem states that the Prym map is generically injective as soon as the dimension of the space of coverings is less or equal to the dimension of the space of polarized abelian varieties. We prove the generic injectivity of the Prym map in the cases of double coverings of curves with: (a) $g=2$, $r=6$, and (b) $g= 5$, $r=2$. In the first case the proof is constructive and can be extended to …
The object of this paper is to prove some general results about rational idempotents for a finite group $G$ and deduce from them geometric information about the components that appear in the decomposition of the Jacobian variety of a curve with $G-$action. We give an algorithm to find explicit primitive rational idempotents for any $G$, as well as for rational projectors invariant under any given subgroup. These explicit constructions allow geometric descriptions of the factors appearing in the decomposition of a Jacobian with group action: from them we deduce the decomposition of any Prym or …
A correspondence between 1) rank 2 completely integrable systems of Jacobians of algebraic curves and 2) (holomorphically) symplectic surfaces was established in a previous paper by the first author. A more general abelian variety that occurs as a Liouville torus of integrable systems is a prym variety associated to a triple (S,W,V) consisting of a curve S, a finite group W of automorphisms of S and an integral representation V. Often W is a Weyl group of a reductive group and V is the root lattice. We establish an analogous correspondence between: i) Rank 2 integrable systems whose Liouville …
The convolution powers of a perverse sheaf on an abelian variety define an interesting family of branched local systems whose geometry is still poorly understood. We show that the generating series for their generic rank is a rational function of a very simple shape and that a similar result holds for the symmetric convolution powers. We also give formulae for other Schur functors in terms of characteristic classes on the dual abelian variety, and as an example we discuss the case of Prym-Tjurin varieties.
Let $ϕ:\,X\rightarrow Y$ be a (possibly ramified) cover between two algebraic curves of positive genus. We develop tools that may identify the Prym variety of $ϕ$, up to isogeny, as the Jacobian of a quotient curve $C$ in the Galois closure of the composition of $ϕ$ with a well-chosen map $Y\rightarrow \mathbb{P}^1$. This method allows us to recover all previously obtained descriptions of a Prym variety in terms of a Jacobian that are known to us, besides yielding new applications. We also find algebraic equations for some of these new cases, including one where $X$ has genus $3$, $Y$ has genu…
Given a curve of genus 3 with an unramified double cover, we give an explicit description of the associated Prym-variety. We also describe how an unramified double cover of a non-hyperelliptic genus 3 curve can be mapped into the Jacobian of a curve of genus 2 over its field of definition and how this can be used to do Chabauty- and Brauer-Manin type calculations for curves of genus 5 with an unramified involution. As an application, we determine the rational points on a smooth plane quartic with no particular geometric properties and give examples of curves of genus 3 and 5 violating the Hass…
With every smooth, projective algebraic curve $\tilde{C}$ with involution $σ:\tilde{C}\longrightarrow \tilde{C}$ without fixed points is associated the Prym data which consists of the Prym variety $P:=(1-σ)J(\tilde{C})$ with principal polarization $Ξ$ such that $2Ξ$ is algebraically equivalent to the restriction on $P$ of the canonical polarization $Θ$ of the Jacobian $J(\tilde{C})$. In contrast to the classical Torelli theorem the Prym data does not always determine uniquely the pair $(\tilde{C},σ)$ up to isomorphism. In this paper we introduce an extension of the Prym data as follows. We con…
