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 tori are generalized prym varieties Prym(S_u,W,V) of a family of curves S_u, u in U. ii) Varieties X of dimension 1+dim(V) with a W-action and an invariant V-valued 2-form. If V is one dimensional X is a symplectic surface. We obtain a rigidity result: When the dimension of V is at least 2, under mild additional assumptions, all the quotient curves $S_u/W$ are isomorphic to a fixed curve C. This rigidity result imposes considerable constraints on the variety X: X admits a W-invariant fibration to C and the generic fiber has an affine structure modeled after V. Examples discussed include: Hitchin systems, reduced finite dimensional coadjoint orbits of loop algebras, and principal bundles over elliptic K3 surfaces.
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.
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 $k$.
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 $V^2$.
Under the condition that the Prym map is injective in characteristic $p$, we prove that the special subvarieties in the moduli space of abelian varieties of dimension $l$ and polarization type $D$, $A_{l,D}$, arising from families of abelian covers of $¶^1$ are of a very restrictive nature. In other words, if the family is one-dimensional or if it contains an eigenspace of certain type for the group action on the cohomology of fibers, then the Shimura varieties arising from such families can only be constructed by the group action of the family.
We describe certain Lagrangian fibrations by Prym varieties on holomorphic symplectic varieties that deform to compactifications of Sp-Hitchin systems.
For a class of non-hyperelliptic genus 3 curves C which are 2-fold coverings of elliptic curves E, we give an explicit algebraic description of all birationally non-equivalent genus 2 curves whose Jacobians are degree 2 isogeneous to the Prym varieties associated to such coverings. Our description is based on previous studies of Prym varieties with polarization (1,2) in connection with separation of variables in a series of classical and new algebraic integrable systems linearized on such varieties. We also consider some special cases of the covering C -> E, in particular, when the correspondi…
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 study the enumerative geometry of the moduli space R_g of Prym varieties of dimension g-1 (also known as the space of admissible double covers). Our main result is that the compactification of R_g is of general type as soon as g>13. We achieve this by computing the class of two types of cycles on R_g: one defined in terms of Koszul cohomology of Prym curves, the other defined in terms of Raynaud theta divisors associated to certain vector bundles on curves. We formulate a Prym-Green conjecture on syzygies of Prym-canonical curves. In the appendix we show that even though R_g has non-canonic…
We construct pointed Prym-Brill-Noether varieties parametrizing line bundles assigned to an irreducible étale double covering of a curve with a prescribed minimal vanishing at a fixed point. We realize them as degeneracy loci in type D and deduce their classes in case of expected dimension. Thus, we determine a pointed Prym-Petri map and prove a pointed version of the Prym-Petri theorem implying that the expected dimension holds in the general case. These results build on work of Welters and De Concini-Pragacz on the unpointed case. Finally, we show that Prym varieties are Prym-Tyurin varietie…
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 study the $p$-rank stratification of the moduli space of Prym varieties in characteristic $p > 0$. For arbitrary primes $p$ and $\ell$ with $\ell \not = p$ and integers $g \geq 3$ and $0 \leq f \leq g$, the first theorem generalizes a result of Nakajima by proving that the Prym varieties of all the unramified ${\mathbb Z}/\ell$-covers of a generic curve $X$ of genus $g$ and $p$-rank $f$ are ordinary. Furthermore, when $p \geq 5$ and $\ell = 2$, the second theorem implies that there exists a curve of genus $g$ and $p$-rank $f$ having an unramified double cover whose Prym has $p$-rank $f'$ fo…
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.
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…
