We resolve a 1983 question of Serre by constructing curves with many points of every genus over every finite field. More precisely, we show that for every prime power q there is a positive constant c_q with the following property: for every non-negative integer g, there is a genus-g curve over F_q with at least c_q * g rational points over F_q. Moreover, we show that there exists a positive constant d such that for every q we can choose c_q = d * (log q). We show also that there is a constant c > 0 such that for every q and every n > 0, and for every sufficiently large g, there is a genus-g curve over F_q that has at least c*g/n rational points and whose Jacobian contains a subgroup of rational points isomorphic to (Z/nZ)^r for some r > c*g/n.
In $2000$, Colliot-Thélène and Poonen showed how to construct algebraic families of genus one curves violating the Hasse principle. Poonen explicitly constructed an algebraic family of genus one cubic curves violating the Hasse principle using the general method developed by Colliot-Thélène and himself. The main result in this paper generalizes the result of Colliot-Thélène and Poonen to arbitrarily high genus hyperelliptic curves. More precisely, for $n > 5$ and $n \not\equiv 0 \pmod{4}$, we show that there is an algebraic family of hyperelliptic curves of genus $n$ that is counterexamples to…
We determine all genus 2 curves, defined over $\mathbb C$, which have simultaneously degree 2 and 3 elliptic subcovers. The locus of such curves has three irreducible 1-dimensional genus zero components in $\mathcal M_2$. For each component we find a rational parametrization and construct the equation of the corresponding genus 2 curve and its elliptic subcovers in terms of the parameterization. Such families of genus 2 curves are determined for the first time. Furthermore, we prove that there are only finitely many genus 2 curves (up to $\mathbb C$-isomorphism) defined over $\mathbb Q$, which…
Let N_q(g) denote the maximal number of F_q-rational points on any curve of genus g over the finite field F_q. Ihara (for square q) and Serre (for general q) proved that limsup_{g-->infinity} N_q(g)/g > 0 for any fixed q. In their proofs they constructed curves with many points in infinitely many genera; however, their sequences of genera are somewhat sparse. In this paper, we prove that lim_{g-->infinity} N_q(g) = infinity. More precisely, we use abelian covers of P^1 to prove that liminf_{g-->infinity} N_q(g)/(g/log g) > 0, and we use curves on toric surfaces to prove that liminf_{g-->infty}…
We compute the cohomology of the stack M_1 with coefficients in Z[1/2], and in low degrees with coefficients in Z. Cohomology classes on M_1 give rise to characteristic classes, cohomological invariants of families of curves of genus one. We prove a number of vanishing results for those characteristic classes, and give explicit examples of families with non-vanishing characteristic classes.
We consider families of curve-to-curve maps that have no singularities except those of genus 0 stable maps and that satisfy a versality condition at each singularity. We provide a universal expression for the cohomology class Poincaré dual to the locus of any given singularity. Our expressions hold for any family of curve-to-curve maps satisfying the above properties.
This paper determines the normal forms of hyperelliptic supersingular curves of genus g over an algebraically closed field F of characteristic 2 for 0 < g< 9. We also show that every hyperelliptic supersingular curve of genus 9 over F has an equation y^2-y=x^19+c^8x^9+c^3x for some c in F_2bar. The paper determines the dimensions of the open locus of hyperelliptic supersingular curves of genus g < 10 over F_2bar.
We present three families of pairs of geometrically non-isomorphic curves whose Jacobians are isomorphic to one another as unpolarized abelian varieties. Each family is parametrized by an open subset of P^1. The first family consists of pairs of genus-2 curves whose equations are given by simple expressions in the parameter; the curves in this family have reducible Jacobians. The second family also consists of pairs of genus-2 curves, but generically the curves in this family have absolutely simple Jacobians. The third family consists of pairs of genus-3 curves, one member of each pair being a…
In this note, we explain how certain matrix factorizations on cubic threefolds lead to families of curves of genus 15 and degree 16 in P^4. We prove that the moduli space M={(C,L) | C a curve of genus 15, L a line bundle on C of degree 16 with 5 sections} is birational to a certain space of matrix factorizations of cubics, and that M is uniruled. Our attempt to prove the unirationality of this space failed with our methods. Instead one can interpret our findings as evidence for the conjecture that the basis of the maximal rational connected fibration of M has a three dimensional base.
We develop an algorithm to compute Fourier expansions of vector valued modular for Weil representations. As an application, we compute explicit linear equivalences of special divisors on modular varieties of orthogonal type. We define three families of Hecke operators for Jacobi forms, and analyze the induced action on vector valued modular forms. The newspaces attached to one of these families are used to give a more memory efficient version of our algorithm.
In this article we apply the classical method of focal loci of families to give a lower bound for the genus of curves lying on general surfaces. First we translate and reprove Xu's result that any curve C on a general surface in P^3 of degree d>4 has geometric genus g > 1 + deg(C)(d - 5)/2. Then we prove a similar lower bound for the curves lying on a general surface in a given component of the Noether-Lefschetz locus in P^3 and on a general projectively Cohen-Macaulay surface in P^4.
We study genus 2 covers of relative elliptic curves over an arbitrary base in which 2 is invertible. Particular emphasis lies on the case that the covering degree is 2. We show that the data in the "basic construction" of genus 2 covers of relative elliptic curves determine the cover in a unique way (up to isomorphism). A classical theorem says that a genus 2 cover of an elliptic curve of degree 2 over a field of characteristic different from 2 is birational to a product of two elliptic curves over the projective line. We formulate and prove a generalization of this theorem for the relative si…
In this paper we prove that complete families of smooth and projective curves, of genusg>2, in characteristic p>0, with a constant geometric fundamental group, are isotrivial.
We study the fluctuations in the distribution of zeros of zeta functions of a family of hyperelliptic curves defined over a fixed finite field, in the limit of large genus. According to the Riemann Hypothesis for curves, the zeros all lie on a circle. Their angles are uniformly distributed, so for a curve of genus g a fixed interval I will contain 2g|I| angles as the genus grows. We show that for the variance of number of angles in I is asymptotically a constant multiple of log(2g|I|) and prove a central limit theorem: The normalized fluctuations are Gaussian. These results continue to hold fo…
For each group $G$, $(|G| > 2)$ \, which acts as a full automorphism group on a genus 3 hyperelliptic curve, we determine the family of curves which have 2-Weierstrass points. Such families of curves are explicitly determined in terms of the absolute invariants of binary octavics. The 1-dimensional families that we discover have the property that they contain only genus 0 components.
The number A(q) is the upper limit of the ratio of the maximum number of points of a curve defined over $\Fq$ to the genus. By constructing class field towers with good parameters we present improvements of lower bounds of A(q) for q an odd power of a prime.
We study universal families of stable genus two curves with level structure. Among other things, it is shown that the (1,1) part is spanned by divisor classes, and that there are no cycles of type (2,2) in the third cohomology of the first direct image. Using this, we deduce the Hodge and Tate conjectures hold for these varieties.
We study and explicitly construct some families of asymptotically exact sequences of algebraic function fields. It turns out that these families have an asymptotical class number widely greater than the general Lachaud - Martin-Deschamps bounds. We emphasize that we obtain asymptotically exact sequences of algebraic function fields over any finite field $\F_q$, in particular when $q$ is not a square and that these sequences are dense towers.
We show that, for each $n>0$, there is a family of elliptic surfaces which are covered by the square of a curve of genus $2n+1$, and whose Hodge structures have an action by ${\mathbb Q}(\sqrt{-n})$. By considering the case $n=3$, we show that one particular family of K3 surfaces are covered by the square of genus $7$. Using this, we construct a correspondence between the square of a curve of genus $7$ and a general K3 surface in ${\mathbb P}^4$ with $15$ ordinary double points up to isogeny. This gives an explicit proof of the Kuga-Satake-Deligne correspondence for these K3 surfaces and any K…
Let $C$ be a curve of genus $g$ over a field $k$. We describe probabilistic algorithms for addition and inversion of the classes of rational divisors in the Jacobian of $C$. After a precomputation, which is done only once for the curve $C$, the algorithms use only linear algebra in vector spaces of dimension at most $O(g \log g)$, and so take $O(g^{3 + ε})$ field operations in $k$, using Gaussian elimination. Using fast algorithms for the linear algebra, one can improve this time to $O(g^{2.376})$. This represents a significant improvement over the previous record of $O(g^4)$ field operations …
In this note, we give a so-called representative classification for the strata by automorphism group of smooth $\bar{k}$-plane curves of genus $6$, where $\bar{k}$ is a fixed separable closure of a field $k$ of characteristic $p = 0$ or $p > 13$. We start with a classification already obtained by the first author and we use standard techniques. Interestingly, in the way to get these families for the different strata, we find two remarkable phenomenons that did not appear before. One is the existence of a non $0$-dimensional final stratum of plane curves. At a first sight it may sound odd, but …
In this note, we characterize certain maximal superspecial curves of genus $5$ over finite fields. Specifically, we prove that the desingularization $T_p$ of $x y z^3 + x^5 + y^5 = 0$ is a maximal superspecial trigonal curve of genus $5$ if and only if $p \equiv -1 \pmod{15}$ or $p \equiv 11 \pmod{15}$. Moreover, we give families of maximal curves of more general type, which include $T_p$.
In this article we determine the maximal possible order of the automorphism group of the form $ag + b$, where $a$ and $b$ are integers, of a complex three and four-dimensional family of compact Riemann surfaces of genus $g$, appearing for all genus. In addition, we construct and describe explicit complex three and four-dimensional families possessing these maximal number of automorphisms.
We extend results of Chang and Ran regarding large dimensional families of immersed curves of positive genus in projective space in two directions. In one direction, we prove a sharp bound for the dimension of a complete family of smooth rational curves immersed into projective space, completing the picture in projective space. In another direction, we isolate the necessary positivity condition on the tangent bundle of projective space used to run the argument, which allows us to rule out large dimensional families of immersed curves of positive genus in generalized flag varieties.
We give an upper bound for the degree of rational curves in a family that covers a given birational ruled surface in projective space. The upper bound is stated in terms of the degree, sectional genus and arithmetic genus of the surface. We introduce an algorithm for constructing examples where the upper bound is tight. As an application of our methods we improve an inequality on lattice polygons.
For each discriminant $D>1$, McMullen constructed the Prym-Teichmüller curves $W_D(4)$ and $W_D(6)$ in $\mathcal{M}_{3}$ and $\mathcal{M}_{4}$, which constitute one of the few known infinite families of geometrically primitive Teichmüller curves. In the present paper, we determine for each $D$ the number and type of orbifold points on $W_D(6)$. These results, together with a previous result of the two authors in the genus $3$ case and with results of Lanneau-Nguyen and Möller, complete the topological characterisation of all Prym-Teichmüller curves and determine their genus. The study of orbif…
We determine average sizes/bounds for the $2$- and $3$-Selmer groups in various families of elliptic curves with marked points, thus confirming several cases of the Poonen--Rains heuristics. As a consequence, we deduce that the average ranks of the elliptic curves in all of these families are bounded. Our proofs are uniform and make use of parametrizations involving various forms of $2 \times 2 \times 2 \times 2$ and $3 \times 3 \times 3$ matrices that we studied in a previous paper. We also deduce that $100\%$ of genus one curves of the form $y^2 = Ax^4 + Bx^2 z^2 + Cz^4$ with $A, B, C \in \m…
A real algebraic variety is maximal (with respect to the Smith-Thom inequality) if the sum of the Betti numbers (with $\mathbb{Z}_2$ coefficients) of the real part of the variety is equal to the sum of Betti numbers of its complex part. We prove that there exist polytopes that are not Newton polytopes of any maximal hypersurface in the corresponding toric variety. On the other hand we show that for any polytope $Δ$ there are families of hypersurfaces with the Newton polytopes $(λΔ)_{λ\in \mathbb{N}}$ that are asymptotically maximal when $λ$ tends to infinity. We also show that these results ge…
For every odd prime number p, we give examples of non-constant smooth families of genus 2 curves over fields of characteristic p which have pro-Galois (pro-étale) covers of infinite degree with geometrically connected fibers. The Jacobians of the curves are isomorphic to products of elliptic curves.
We establish a general identity between the Mahler measures $m(Q_k(x,y))$ and $m(P_k(x,y))$ of two polynomial families, where $Q_k(x,y)=0$ and $P_k(x,y)=0$ are generically hyperelliptic and elliptic curves, respectively.
This paper is a sequel to arXiv:1109.4986, where we proved that a general smooth curve of odd genus, canonically or bicanonically embedded, has semistable finite Hilbert points. Here, we prove that a generic canonically embedded curve of even genus has semistable finite Hilbert points. More precisely, we prove that a generic canonically embedded trigonal curve of even genus has semistable finite Hilbert points. Furthermore, we show that the analogous result fails for bielliptic curves. Namely, the Hilbert points of bielliptic curves are asymptotically semistable but become non-semistable below…
L. Moret-Bailly constructed families $\mathfrak{C}\rightarrow \mathbb{P}^1$ of genus 2 curves with supersingular jacobian. In this paper we first classify the reducible fibers of a Moret-Bailly family using linear algebra over a quaternion algebra. The main result is an algorithm that exploits properties of two reducible fibers to compute a hyperelliptic model for any irreducible fiber of a Moret-Bailly family.
We bound the maximal number N of singular points of a plane algebraic curve C that has precisely one place at infinity with one branch in terms of its first Betti number $b_1(C)$. Asymptotically we prove that $N<\sim{17/11}b_1(C)$ for large $b_1$. In particular, in the case of curves with one place at infinity, we confirm the Zaidenberg and Lin conjecture stating that $N\le 2b_1+1$.
Harris and Morrison constructed semistable families f:F \to Y of k-gonal curves of genus g such that for every k the corresponding modular curves give a sweeping family in the k-gonal locus in the moduli space. Their construction depends on the choice of a smooth curve X. We show that if the genus g(X) is sufficiently high with respect to g, then the ratio K_F^2 / χ(O_F) is 8 asymptotically with respect to g(X). We show also that if the gonality is maximal and some conjectured estimates of Harris and Morrison hold, the slope of the fibration f: F\to Y is 12 asymptotically with respect to g and…
We prove Boyd's "unexpected coincidence" of the Mahler measures for two families of two-variate polynomials defining curves of genus 2. We further equate the same measures to the Mahler measures of polynomials $y^3-y+x^3-x+kxy$ whose zero loci define elliptic curves for $k\ne0,\pm3$.
We study families of Galois covers of curves of positive genus. It is known that under a numerical condition these families yield Shimura subvarieties generically contained in the Jacobian locus. We prove that there are only 6 families satisfying this condition, all of them in genus 2,3 or 4. We also show that these families admit two fibrations in totally geodesic subvarieties, generalizing a result of Grushevsky and Möller. Countably many of these fibres are Shimura. Thus the Jacobian locus contains infinitely many Shimura subvarieties of positive dimension of any $g \leq 4$.
In this work we consider constructions of genus three curves $X$ such that $\mathrm{End}(\mathrm{Jac} (X))\otimes Q$ contains the totally real cubic number field $Q(ζ_7 +\barζ_7 )$. We construct explicit three-dimensional families whose generic member is a nonhyperelliptic genus 3 curve with this property. The case when $X$ is hyperelliptic was studied in a previous work by Hoffman and Wang and some nonhyperelliptic curves were constructed in a previous paper by Hoffman, Z. Liang. Sakai and Wang.
We compute all the "special" cases of (3,3)-split Jacobians and we parametrize the Igusa-Clebsch invariants of curves of genus two whose Jacobian is (3,3)-isogenous to a product of two elliptic curves from the Hesse pencil.
A coregular space is a representation of an algebraic group for which the ring of polynomial invariants is free. In this paper, we show that the orbits of many coregular irreducible representations where the number of invariants is at least two, over a (not necessarily algebraically closed) field k, correspond to genus one curves over k together with line bundles, vector bundles, and/or points on their Jacobians. In forthcoming work, we use these orbit parametrizations to determine the average sizes of Selmer groups for various families of elliptic curves.
We give restrictions on the existence of families of curves on smooth projective surfaces $S$ of nonnegative Kodaira dimension all having constant geometric genus $g \geq 2$ and hyperelliptic normalizations. In particular, we prove a Reider-like result whose proof is ``vector bundle-free'' and relies on deformation theory and bending-and-breaking of rational curves in $\Sym^2(S)$. We also give examples of families of such curves.
In this paper we show an Arakelov inequality for semi-stable families of algebraic curves of genus $g\geq 1$ over characteristic $p$ with nontrivial Kodaira-Spencer maps. We apply this inequality to obtain an upper bound of the number of algebraic curves of $p-$rank zero in a semi-stable family over characteristic $p$ with nontrivial Kodaira-Spencer map in terms of the genus of a general closed fiber, the genus of the base curve and the number of singular fibres. An extension of the above results to smooth families of Abelian varieties over $k$ with $W_2$-lifting assumption is also included.
In this work we consider constructions of genus three curves $X$ such that $\mathrm{End}(\mathrm{Jac}(X)) \otimes Q$ contains the totally real cubic number field $Q(ζ_ 7 + \overlineζ_7)$. We construct explicit two-dimensional families defined over $Q(s; t)$ whose generic member is a nonhyperelliptic genus 3 curve with this property. The case when X is hyperelliptic was studied by the authors Hoffman and Wang in a previous work. We calculate the zeta function of one of these curves. Conjecturally this zeta function is described by a modular form.
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.
In this paper, we introduce a method that allows to produce necessary conditions on the Denavit--Hartenberg parameters for the mobility of a closed linkage with six rotational joints. We use it to prove that the genus of the configuration curve of a such a linkage is at most five, and to give a complete classification of the linkages with a configuration curve of degree four or five. The classification contains new families.
We prove that asymptotically in the degree, the main term of the Boij--Söderberg decomposition of a high degree curve is a single pure diagram that only depends on the genus of the curve. This answers a question of Ein and Lazarsfeld in the case of curves.
Let X be a smooth projective curve of genus g bigger then 2. For any vector bundle E on X let M_k(E) be the scheme of all rank k subbundles of E with maximal degree. For every integers r, k and x with 0<k<r, x positive and either x less then (k-1)(r-2k+1) (if 2k is less then r) or (r-k-1)(2k-r+1) (if 2k> r), we construct a rank r stable vector bundle E such that M_k(E) has an irreducible component of dimension x. Furthermore, if there exists a stable vector bundle F with small Lange's invariant s_k(F) and with M_k(F) `spread enough', then X i s a multiple covering of a curve of genus bigger th…
Kodaira's classification of singular fibers in elliptic fibrations and its translation into the language of monodromies and Lefschetz fibrations has been a boon to the study of 4-manifolds. In this article, we begin the work of translating between singular fibers of genus 2 families of algebraic curves and the positive Dehn twist factorizations of Lefschetz fibrations for a certain subset of the singularities described by Namikawa and Ueno in the 70s. We look at four families of hypersurface singularities in $\mathbb{C}^3$. Each hypersurface comes equipped with a fibration by genus 2 algebraic…
