Suppose that C is a smooth, projective, geometrically connected curve of genus g > 2 defined over a number field K. Suppose that x is a K-rational point of C. Denote the Lie algebra of the unipotent completion (over Q_ell) of the fundamental group of the corresponding complex analytic curve by p(C,x). This is acted on by both G_K (the Galois group of K) and Gamma, the mapping class group of the pointed complex curve. In this paper we show that the algebraic cycle C_x-C_x^- in the jacobian of C controls the size of the image of G_K in Aut p(C,x). More precisely, we give necessary and sufficient conditions, in terms of two Galois cohomology classes determined by this cycle, for the Zariski closure of the image of G_K in Aut p(C,x) to contain the image of the mapping class group. We also prove an equivalent version for the pro-ell fundamental group, an unpointed version, and a Galois analogue of the Harris-Pulte Theorem.
In this article we prove a local Riemman-Hurwitz formula which compares the dimensions of the spaces of vanishing cycles in a finite Galois cover of type (p,p,...,p) between formal germs of p-adic curves and which generalises the formula proven by the first author in the case of Galois covers of degree p. We also investigate the problem of the existence of a torsor structure for a finite Galois cover of type (p,p,...,p) between p-adic schemes.
We show all the possible structures of finite subgroups of the automorphism groups of elliptic curves. Here the automorphism means the biholomorphic transformation. Using the result, we determine every Galois group G at outer Galois point for genus-one curve with singular points. In particular, if G is abelian, then its order is at most nine. However if not so, the order is unbounded. Furthermore, we give every defining equation of the curve with the Galois point in the case where G is abelian.
We consider the inverse Galois problem over function fields of positive characteristic p, for example, the inverse Galois problem over the projective line. We describe a method to construct certain Galois covers of the projective line and other curves, which are ordinary in the sense that their Jacobian has maximal p-torsion. We do this by constructing Galois covers of ordinary semi-stable curves, and then deforming them into smooth Galois covers.
The fundamental group of Fermat and generalized Fermat curves is computed. These curves are Galois ramified covers of the projective line with abelian Galois groups $H$. We provide a unified study of the action of both cover Galois group $H$ and the absolute Galois group $\mathrm{Gal}(\bar{\Q}/\Q)$ on the pro-$\ell$ homology of the curves in study. Also the relation to the pro-$\ell$ Burau representation is investigated.
We settle the automorphism groups of curves appearing in a classification list of smooth plane curves with at least two Galois points. One of them is an ordinary curve whose automorphism group exceeds the Hurwitz bound.
We show that the generalized Giulietti-Korchmáros curve is not a Galois subcover of the Hermitian curve over $\mathbb{F}_{q^{2n}}$. This answers a question raised by Garcia, Güneri and Stichtenoth.
We determine conditions for the invariance of the gonality under base extension, depending on the numeric invariants of the curve. More generally, we study the Galois descent of morphisms of curves to Brauer-Severi varieties, and also of rational normal scrolls.
We compute the Galois groups for a certain class of polynomials over the the field of rational numbers that was introduced by S. Mori and study the monodromy of corresponding hyperelliptic jacobians.
The V_4-lines for each linearly normal space elliptic curve form the edges of a tetrahedron, however in case the elliptic curve has j=12^3, there exist Z_4-lines in addition. We show the arrangement of V_4 and Z_4-lines explicitly for the curve. As a corollary we obtain that each irreducible quartic curve with genus one has at most two Galois points.
In 2017 Skabelund constructed two new examples of maximal curves $\tilde{\mathcal{S}}_q$ and $\tilde{\mathcal{R}}_q$ as covers of the Suzuki and Ree curves, respectively. The resulting Skabelund curves are analogous to the Giulietti-Korchmáros cover of the Hermitian curve. In this paper a complete characterization of all Galois subcovers of the Skabelund curves $\tilde{\mathcal{S}}_q$ and $\tilde{\mathcal{R}}_q$ is given. Calculating the genera of the corresponding curves, we find new additions to the list of known genera of maximal curves over finite fields.
In this paper we investigate the problem of lifting of Galois covers between algebraic curves from characteristic p>0 to characteristic 0. We prove a refined version of the main result of Garuti concerning this problem in [Ga]. We formulate a refined version of the Oort conjecture on liftings of cyclic Galois covers between curves. We introduce the notion of fake liftings of cyclic Galois covers between curves, their existence would contradict the Oort conjecture, and we study the geometry of their semi-stable models. Finally, we introduce and investigate on some examples the smoothening proce…
We show how to speed up the computation of isomorphisms of hyperelliptic curves by using covariants. We also obtain new theoretical and practical results concerning models of these curves over their field of moduli.
We outline the proof of a theorem of M. Baker and A. Tamagawa that gives a complete description of the torsion points on a modular curve embedded in its Jacobian using the notion of an `almost rational torsion point.'
Given an elliptic curve $E/k$ and a Galois extension $k'/k$, we construct an exact functor from torsion-free modules over the endomorphism ring ${\rm End}(E_{k'})$ with a semilinear ${\rm Gal}(k'/k)$ action to abelian varieties over $k$ that are $k'$-isogenous to a power of $E$. As an application, we show that every elliptic curve with complex multiplication geometrically is isogenous over the ground field to one with complex multiplication by a maximal order.
Given a non-isotrivial elliptic curve over an arithmetic surface, one obtains a lisse $\ell$-adic sheaf of rank two over the surface. This lisse sheaf has a number of straightforward properties: cyclotomic determinant, finite ramification, rational traces of Frobenius, and somewhere not potentially good reduction. We prove that any lisse sheaf of rank two possessing these properties comes from an elliptic curve.
This survey is about Galois theory of curves in characteristic p, a topic which has inspired major research in algebraic geometry and number theory and which contains many open questions. We illustrate important phenomena which occur for covers of curves in characteristic p. We explain key results on the structure of fundamental groups. We end by describing areas of active research and giving two new results about the genus and p-rank of certain covers of the affine line.
This is an introduction to noncommutative local reciprocity maps for totally ramified Galois extensions with arithmetically profinite group. These maps in general are not homomorphisms but Galois cycles; a description of their image and kernel is included.
This paper is devoted to the explicit description of the Galois descent obstruction for hyperelliptic curves of arbitrary genus whose reduced automorphism group is cyclic of order coprime to the characteristic of their ground field. Along the way, we obtain an arithmetic criterion for the existence of a hyperelliptic descent. The obstruction is described by the so-called arithmetic dihedral invariants of the curves in question. If it vanishes, then the use of these invariants also allows the explicit determination of a model over the field of moduli; if not, then one obtains a hyperelliptic mo…
We prove two "large images" results for the Galois representations attached to a degree $d$ Q-curve $E$ over a quadratic field $K$: if $K$ is arbitrary, we prove maximality of the image for every prime $p >13$ not dividing $d$, provided that $d$ is divisible by $q$ (but $d \neq q$) with $q=2$ or 3 or 5 or 7 or 13. If $K$ is real we prove maximality of the image for every odd prime $p$ not dividing $d D$, where $D = \disc(K)$, provided that $E$ is a semistable Q-curve. In both cases we make the (standard) assumptions that $E$ does not have potentially good reduction at all primes $p \nmid 6$ an…
We show that the mod p Galois representations attached to a Q-curve E of degree d over an imaginary quadratic number field K are surjective for all p larger than some constant M_{K,d}, if E has potentially multiplicative reduction at any prime not dividing 6. The proof uses Mazur's formal immersion method, a result of Darmon and Merel on non-split modular curves, and an analytic argument showing that Jacobians of certain twisted modular curves admit quotients with Mordell-Weil rank 0. In combination with a previous theorem of the author and Skinner on modularity of Q-curves, the surjectivity r…
For each nonsingular hyperelliptic curve of arbitrary genus, we construct a natural injection from the Galois cohomology of 2-torsion subgroups of Jacobian varieties of the curve to the set of isomorphism classes of nonsingular complete intersections of two quadrics. This gives a generalization of the result of Flynn and Skorobogatov.
For an odd prime $p$ satisfying Vandiver's conjecture, we give explicit formulae for the action of the absolute Galois group $G_{\mathbb{Q}(ζ_p)}$ on the homology of the degree $p$ Fermat curve, building on work of Anderson. Further, we study the invariants and the first Galois cohomology group which are associated with obstructions to rational points on the Fermat curve.
We define and study a collection of special cycles on certain non-PEL Shimura varieties for $U(2,1) \times U(1,1)$ that appear naturally in the context of the recent conjectures of Gan, Gross and Prasad on restrictions of automorphic forms for unitary groups and conjectural generalizations of the Gross--Zagier formula. We prove a combinatorial formula expressing the Galois action in terms of the distance function on the Bruhat--Tits buildings for these groups. In addition, we calculate explicitly the Hecke polynomial appearing in the congruence relation conjectured by Blasius and Rogawski. Usi…
Let $X$ be a smooth projective connected curve of genus $g\ge 2$ defined over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p>0$. Let $G$ be a finite group, $P$ a Sylow $p$-subgroup of $G$ and $N_G(P)$ its normalizer in $G$. We show that if there exists an étale Galois cover $Y\to X$ with group $N_G(P)$, then $G$ is the Galois group wan étale Galois cover $\mathcal{Y}\to\mathcal{X}$, where the genus of $\mathcal{X}$ depends on the order of $G$, the number of Sylow $p$-subgroups of $G$ and $g$. Suppose that $G$ is an extension of a group $H$ of order prime to $p$ by a $p$-group $P$ and $…
Let X be a smooth compactification of a homogeneous space of a linear algebraic group G over a number field k. We establish the conjecture of Colliot-Thélène, Sansuc, Kato and Saito on the image of the Chow group of zero-cycles of X in the product of the same groups over all the completions of k. When G is semisimple and simply connected and the geometric stabiliser is finite and supersolvable, we show that rational points of X are dense in the Brauer-Manin set. For finite supersolvable groups, in particular for finite nilpotent groups, this yields a new proof of Shafarevich's theorem on the i…
Given a Galois cover of curves over $\mathbb{F}_p$, we relate the $p$-adic valuation of epsilon constants appearing in functional equations of Artin L-functions to an equivariant Euler characteristic. Our main theorem generalises a result of Chinburg from the tamely to the weakly ramified case. We furthermore apply Chinburg's result to obtain a `weak' relation in the general case. In the Appendix, we study, in this arbitrarily wildly ramified case, the integrality of $p$-adic valuations of epsilon constants.
In this paper, we survey some Galois-theoretic techniques for studying torsion points on curves. In particular, we give new proofs of some results of A. Tamagawa and the present authors for studying torsion points on curves with "ordinary good" or "ordinary semistable" reduction at a given prime. We also give new proofs of: (1) The Manin-Mumford conjecture: There are only finitely many torsion points lying on a curve of genus at least 2 embedded in its Jacobian by an Albanese map; and (2) The Coleman-Kaskel-Ribet conjecture: If p is a prime number which is at least 23, then the only torsion po…
This article computes the Galois groups of congruence covers arising in the context of certain hyperbolic triangle groups. As a consequence of this computation, the genera of the respective curves are deduced.
We give explicit uniform bounds for several quantities relevant to the study of Galois representations attached to elliptic curves $E/\mathbb Q$. We consider in particular the subgroup of scalars in the image of Galois, the first Galois cohomology group with values in the torsion of $E$, and the Kummer extensions generated by points of infinite order in $E(\mathbb Q)$.
We compute equivariant Euler characteristics of locally free sheaves on curves, thereby generalizing several results of Kani and Nakajima. For instance, we extend Kani's computation of the Galois module structure of the space of global meromorphic differentials which are logarithmic along the ramification locus from the tamely ramified to the weakly ramified case.
In his paper titled "Torsion points on Fermat Jacobians, roots of circular units and relative singular homology", Anderson determines the homology of the degree $n$ Fermat curve as a Galois module for the action of the absolute Galois group $G_{\mathbb{Q}(ζ_n)}$. In particular, when $n$ is an odd prime $p$, he shows that the action of $G_{\mathbb{Q}(ζ_p)}$ on a more powerful relative homology group factors through the Galois group of the splitting field of the polynomial $1-(1-x^p)^p$. If $p$ satisfies Vandiver's conjecture, we prove that the Galois group of this splitting field over $\mathbb{…
In the 1930s Chevalley and Weil gave a formula for decomposing the canonical representation on the space of differential forms of the Galois group of a ramified Galois cover of Riemann surfaces. In this article we prove an analogous Chevalley-Weil formula for ramified Galois covers of orbifold curves. We then specialize the formula to the case when the base orbifold curve is the (reduced) modular orbifold. As an application of this latter formula we decompose the canonical representations of modular curves of full, prime level and of Fermat curves of arbitrary exponent.
Let E be an elliptic curve over Q, and rho_l: Gal(Q) --> GL_2(Z_l) its l-adic Galois representation. Serre observed that for l>3 there is no proper closed subgroup of SL_2(Z_l) that maps surjectively onto SL_2(Z/lZ), and concluded that if rho_l is surjective mod l then it is surjective onto GL_2(Z_l). We show that this no longer holds for l=3 by describing a modular curve X of genus 0 parametrizing elliptic curves for which rho_3 is not surjective mod 9 but generically surjective mod 3. The curve X is defined over Q, and the modular cover X --> X(1) has degree 27 so X is rational. We exhibit a…
We prove that certain fields have the property that their absolute Galois groups are free as profinite groups: the function field of a real curve with no real points; the maximal abelian extension of a 2-variable Laurent series field over a separably closed field; and the maximal abelian extension of the function field of a curve over a finite field. These results are related to generalizations of Shafarevich's conjecture.
The class-invariant homomorphism allows one to measure the Galois module structure of extensions obtained by dividing points on abelian varieties. In this paper, we consider the case when the abelian variety is the Jacobian of a Fermat curve. We give examples of torsion points whose associated Galois structure is trivial, as well as points of infinite order whose associated Galois structure is non-trivial.
We construct plane models of the modular curve $X_H(\ell)$, and use their explicit equations to compute Galois representations associated to modular forms for values of $\ell$ that are significantly higher than in prior works.
We prove that, on average, elliptic curves over Q have finitely many primes p for which they possess a p-adic point of order p. We include a discussion of applications to companion forms and the deformation theory of Galois representations.
Given an elliptic curve E over a number field k, the Galois action on the torsion points of E induces a Galois representation, ρ_E : Gal(\bar{k}/k) \to GL_2(\hat{Z}). For a fixed number field k, we describe the image of ρ_E for a "random" elliptic curve E over k. In particular, if k\neq Q is linearly disjoint from the cyclotomic extension of Q, then ρ_E will be surjective for "most" elliptic curves over k.
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, and let $K$ be a number field of degree four that is Galois over $\mathbb{Q}$. The goal of this article is to classify the different isomorphism types of $E(K)_{\text{tors}}$.
We prove in this paper an uniform surjectivity result for Galois representations associated with non-CM $\mathbb{Q}$-curves over imaginary quadratic fields, using various tools for the proof, such as Mazur's method, isogeny theorems, Runge's method and analytic estimates of sums of $L$-functions.
We investigate a certain class of (geometric) finite (Galois) coverings of formal fibres of $p$-adic curves and the corresponding quotient of the (geometric) étale fundamental group. A key result in our investigation is that these (Galois) coverings can be compactified to finite (Galois) coverings of proper $p$-adic curves. We also prove that the maximal prime-to-$p$ quotient of the geometric étale fundamental group of a (geometrically connected) formal fibre of a $p$-adic curve is (pro-)prime-to-$p$ free of finite computable rank.
In this paper, we propose an improved algorithm for computing mod $\ell$ Galois representations associated to eigenforms of arbitrary levels prime to $\ell$. Precisely, we present a method to find the Jacobians of modular curves which have the smallest possible dimensions in a well-defined sense to realize the modular Galois representations. This algorithm also works without the assumption $\ell \ge k-1$, where $k$ are the weights of the eigenforms.
Let F be the function field of a curve over totally imaginary number field. Let p be a prime. If F contains a primitive p th root of unity, then every element in the third Galois cohomology group of F with values in the group of p th roots of unity, is a symbol.
Given an elliptic curve $E$ over a local field $K$ with residue characteristic $3$, we investigate the action of the absolute Galois group of $K$ in the case of potentially good reduction. In particular the only not completely known case is that of the $\ell$-adic Galois representation attached to an elliptic curve such that the image of inertia is non-cyclic, and isomorphic to $C_3 \rtimes C_4$. In this work we describe such a representation explicitly.
Let $K$ be a $p$-adic field and $E$ an elliptic curve over $K$ with potential good reduction. For some large Galois extensions $L$ of $K$ containing all $p$-power roots of unity, we show the vanishing of certain Galois cohomology groups of $L$ with values in the $p$-adic representation associated with $E$. This generalizes some results of Coates, Sujatha and Wintenberger.
Let E/Q be an elliptic curve and p be a prime number, and let G be the Galois group of the extension of Q obtained by adjoining the coordinates of the p-torsion points on E. We determine all cases when the Galois cohomology group H^1(G, E[p]) does not vanish, and investigate the analogous question for E[p^i] when i>1. We include an application to the verification of certain cases of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, and another application to the Grunwald-Wang problem for elliptic curves.
We find a tight relationship between the torsion subgroup and the image of the mod 2 Galois representation associated to an elliptic curve defined over the rationals. This is shown using some characterizations for the squareness of the discriminant of the elliptic curve.
In this article, we show that in each of four standard families of hyperelliptic curves, there is a density-$1$ subset of members with the property that their Jacobians have adelic Galois representation with image as large as possible. This result constitutes an explicit application of a general theorem on arbitrary rational families of abelian varieties to the case of families of Jacobians of hyperelliptic curves. Furthermore, we provide explicit examples of hyperelliptic curves of genus $2$ and $3$ over $\mathbb Q$ whose Jacobians have such maximal adelic Galois representations.
We calculate an explicit lower bound on the proportion of elliptic curves that are modular over any Galois CM field not containing $ζ_5$. Applied to imaginary quadratic fields, this proportion is at least $2/5$. Applied to cyclotomic fields $\mathbb{Q}(ζ_n)$ with $5\nmid n$, this proportion is at least $1-\varepsilon$ with only finitely many exceptions of $n$, for any choice of $\varepsilon > 0$.
A superelliptic curve over a DVR ${\mathcal O}$ of residual characteristic $p$ is a curve given by an equation $C:y^n=f(x)$. The purpose of the present article is to describe the Galois representation attached to such a curve under the hypothesis that $f(x)$ has all its roots in the fraction field of ${\mathcal O}$ and that $p \nmid n$. Our results are inspired on the algorithm given in [BW17] but our description is given in terms of a cluster picture as defined in [DDMM18].
Let p be a prime and K be a number field. Let rho_{E,p}:G_K \longrightarrow Aut(T_p E)\cong GL_2(Z_p) be the Galois representation given by the Galois action on the p-adic Tate module of an elliptic curve E over K. Serre showed that the image of rho_{E,p} is open if E has no complex multiplication. For an elliptic curve E over K whose j-invariant does not appear in an exceptional finite set, we give an explicit uniform lower bound of the size of the image of rho_{E,p}.
