Major revision. Main result weakened concerning the case of genus 5 curves. One missing case added in genus 4. Application to degenerate Lyapunov spectra added
We classify curves in the moduli space of curves that are both Shimura- and Teichmueller curves: Except for the moduli space of genus one curves there is only a single such curve.
We start with a Hodge-theoretic description of Shimura curves and of Teichmueller curves that reveals similarities and differences of the two classes of curves. The proof of the classification relies on the geometry of square-tiled coverings and on estimating the numerical invariants of these particular fibered surfaces.
Finally we translate our main result into a classification of Teichmueller curves with totally degenerate Lyapunov spectrum.
We construct a Teichmueller curve uniformized by the Fuchsian triangle group (m,n,\infty) for every m<n. Our construction includes the Teichmueller curves constructed by Veech and Ward as special cases. The construction essentially relies on properties of hypergeometric differential operators. For small m, we find Billiard tables that generate these Teichmueller curves. We interprete some of the so-called Lyapunov exponents of the Kontsevich--Zorich cocycle as normalized degrees of some natural line bundles on a Teichmueller curves. We determine the Lyapunov exponents for the Teichmueller curv…
We show that for each genus there are only finitely many algebraically primitive Teichmueller curves C, such that i) C lies in the hyperelliptic locus and ii) C is generated by an abelian differential with two zeros of order g-1. We prove moreover that for these Teichmueller curves the trace field of the affine group is not only totally real but cyclotomic.
We compute the class of arithmetic genus two Teichmueller curves in the Picard group of pseudo-Hilbert modular surfaces, distinguished according to their torsion order and spin invariant. As an application, we compute the number of genus two square-tiled surfaces with these invariants. The main technical tool is the computation of divisor classes of Hilbert Jacobi forms on the universal abelian surface over the pseudo-Hilbert modular surface.
Periodic points are points on Veech surfaces, whose orbit under the group of affine diffeomorphisms is finite. We characterise those points as being torsion points if the Veech surfaces is suitably mapped to its Jacobian or an appropriate factor thereof. For a primitive Veech surface in genus two we show that the only periodic points are the Weierstrass points and the singularities. Our main tool is the Hodge-theoretic characterisation of Teichmueller curves. We deduce from it a finiteness result for the Mordell-Weil group of the family of Jacobians over a Teichmueller curve.
Teichmueller curves are geodesic discs in Teichmueller space that project to an algebraic curve in the moduli space $M_g$. We show that for all $g \geq 2$ Teichmueller curves map to the locus of real multiplication in the moduli space of abelian varieties. Remark that McMullen has shown that precisely for $g=2$ the locus of real multiplication is stable under the $\SL_2(\RR)$-action on the tautological bundle $Ω\M_g$. We also show that Teichmueller curves are defined over number fields and we provide a completely algebraic description of Teichmueller curves in terms of Higgs bundles. As a cons…
In the moduli space M_g of genus g Riemann surfaces, consider the locus RM_O of Riemann surfaces whose Jacobians have real multiplication by the order O in a totally real number field F of degree g. If g = 2 or 3, we compute the closure of RM_O in the Deligne-Mumford compactification of M_g and the closure of the locus of eigenforms over RM_O in the Deligne-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of holomorphic one-forms. For higher genera, we give strong necessary conditions for a stable curve to be in the boundary of RM_O Boundary strata of RM_O are parameterized by configurations of el…
Teichmueller curves are geodesic discs in Teichmueller space that project to algebraic curves $C$ in the moduli space $M_g$. Some Teichmüller curves can be considered as components of Hurwitz spaces. We show that the absolute Galois group $G_\QQ$ acts faithfully on the set of these embedded curves. We also compare the action of $G_\QQ$ on $π_1(C)$ with the one on $π_1(M_g)$ and obtain a relation in the Grothendieck-Teichmueller group, seemingly independent of the known ones.
Fuchsian groups with a modular embedding have the richest arithmetic properties among non-arithmetic Fuchsian groups. But they are very rare, all known examples being related either to triangle groups or to Teichmueller curves. In Part I of this paper we study the arithmetic properties of the modular embedding and develop from scratch a theory of twisted modular forms for Fuchsian groups with a modular embedding, proving dimension formulas, coefficient growth estimates and differential equations. In Part II we provide a modular proof for an Apery-like integrality statement for solutions of Pic…
We study a special Teichmueller curve in the moduli space of curves of genus 3 that is intersected by infinitely many other Teichmueller curves. The Veech group of the underlying translation surface is SL_2(Z). All occurring Teichmueller curves are induced by origamis, i.e. unramified coverings of the once punctured torus.
This paper focuses on the interplay between the intersection theory and the Teichmueller dynamics on the moduli space of curves. As applications, we study the cycle class of strata of the Hodge bundle, present an algebraic method to calculate the class of the divisor parameterizing abelian differentials with a non-simple zero, and verify a number of extremal effective divisors on the moduli space of pointed curves in low genus.
We prove that the moduli space of compact genus three Riemann surfaces contains only finitely many algebraically primitive Teichmueller curves. For the stratum consisting of holomorphic one-forms in genus three with a single zero, our approach to finiteness uses the Harder-Narasimhan filtration of the Hodge bundle over a Teichmueller curve to obtain new information on the locations of the zeros of eigenforms. By passing to the boundary of moduli space, this gives explicit constraints on the cusps of Teichmueller curves in terms of cross-ratios of six points on a projective line. These constrai…
We show that for many strata of Abelian differentials in low genus the sum of Lyapunov exponents for the Teichmueller geodesic flow is the same for all Teichmueller curves in that stratum, hence equal to the sum of Lyapunov exponents for the whole stratum. This behavior is due to the disjointness property of Teichmueller curves with various geometrically defined divisors on moduli spaces of curves.
This survey article discusses some results on the structure of families f:V-->U of n-dimensional manifolds over quasi-projective curves U, with semistable reduction over a compactification Y of U. We improve the Arakelov inequality for the direct images of powers of the dualizing sheaf. For families of Abelian varieties we recall the characterization of Shimura curves by Arakelov equalities. For families of curves we recall the characterization of Teichmueller curves in terms of the existence of certain sub variation of Hodge structures. We sketch the proof that the moduli scheme of curves of …
We study the boundary of Teichmueller disks in a partial compactification of Teichmueller space, and their image in Schottky space. We give a broad introduction to Teichmueller disks and explain the relation between Teichmueller curves and Veech groups. Furthermore, we describe Braungardt's construction of this partial compactification and compare it with the Abikoff augmented Teichmueller space. Following Masur, we give a description of Strebel rays that makes it easy to understand their end points on the boundary. This prepares the description of boundary points that a Teichmueller disk has,…
We give an algebraic way of distinguishing the components of the exceptional strata of quadratic differentials in genus three and four. The complete list of these strata is (9, -1), (6,3,-1), (3,3,3, -1) in genus three and (12), (9,3), (6,6), (6,3,3) and (3,3,3,3) in genus four. This result is part of a more general investigation of disjointness of Teichmueller curves with divisors of Brill-Noether type on the moduli space of curves. As a result we show that for many strata of quadratic differentials in low genus the sum of Lyapunov exponents for the Teichmueller geodesic flow is the same for …
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.
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…
We prove that there are no Shimura-Teichmüller curves generated by genus five translation surfaces, thereby completing the classification of Shimura-Teichmüller curves in general. This was conjectured by Möller in his original work introducing Shimura-Teichmüller curves. Moreover, the property of being a Shimura-Teichmüller curve is equivalent to having completely degenerate Kontsevich-Zorich spectrum. The main new ingredient comes from the work of Hu and the second named author, which facilitates calculations of higher order terms in the period matrix with respect to plumbing coordinates. A l…
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.
We study an example of a Teichmueller curve in the moduli space of algebraic curves of genus 2 coming from an origami S. It is particular in that its points admit the Klein four group as a subgroup of the automorphism group. We give an explicit description of its points in terms of affine plane curves, we show that the Teichmueller curve is a nonsingular, affine curve of genus 0 and we determine the number of cusps in the boundary of the moduli space.
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 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…
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 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…
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).
We construct an infinite number of Shimura curves contained in the locus of hyperelliptic Jacobians of genus 3. In the opposite direction, we show that in genus 3 the only possible non-complete (in the moduli space of abelian threefolds) Kuga curves contained in the hyperelliptic locus have the same degeneration data as that of the examples we construct. The locus of genus 3 hyperelliptic Jacobians is a divisor within the moduli space of principally polarized abelian threefolds, and our result demonstrates the techniques we develop more generally for dealing with Shimura curves contained withi…
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.
We obtain new asymptotical bounds for the symmetric tensor rank of multiplication in any finite extension of any finite field $\F_q$. In this aim, we use the symmetric Chudnovsky-type generalized algorithm applied on a family of Shimura modular curves defined over $\F_{q^2}$ attaining the Drinfeld-Vladut bound and on the descent of this family over the definition field $\F_q$.
We establish a relation between intersection numbers of special cycles on a Shimura curve and special values of derivatives of metaplectic Eisenstein series at a place of bad reduction where p-adic uniformization in the sense of Cherednik and Drinfeld holds. The result extends the one established by one of us (S. Kudla: Ann. of Math. 146 (1997)) for the archimedean place and for the non-archimedean places of good reduction. The bulk of the paper is concerned with the corresponding problem on the Drinfeld upper half plane (the formal scheme version).
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.
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.
In this paper, we study special cycles on the Krämer model of $\mathrm{U}(1,1)(F/F_0)$-Rapoport-Zink spaces where $F/F_0$ is a ramified quadratic extension of $p$-adic number fields with the assumption that the $2$-dimensional hermitian space of special quasi-homomorphisms is anisotropic. We write down the decomposition of these special cycles and prove a version of Kudla-Rapoport conjecture in this case. We then apply the local results to compute the intersection numbers of special cycles on unitary Shimura curves and relate these intersection numbers to Fourier coefficients of central deriva…
We describe a model-theoretic setting for the study of Shimura varieties, and study the interaction between model theory and arithmetic geometry in this setting. In particular, we show that the model-theoretic statement of a certain $\mathcal{L}_{ω_1, ω}$-sentence having a unique model of cardinality $\aleph_1$ is equivalent to a condition regarding certain Galois representations associated with Hodge-generic points. We then show that for modular and Shimura curves this $\mathcal{L}_{ω_1, ω}$-sentence has a unique model in every infinite cardinality. In the process, we prove a new characterisa…
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.
Projective structures on compact real manifolds are classical objects in real differential geometry. Complex manifolds with a holomorphic projective structure on the other hand form a special class as soon as the dimension is greater than one. In the Kähler Einstein case, projective space, tori and ball quotients are essentially the only examples. They can be described purely in terms of Chern class conditions. We give a complete classification of all projective manifolds carrying a projective structure. The only additional examples are modular abelian families over quaternionic Shimura curves…
