Frobenius-Schur indicator and the ubiquity of Brock-Granville quadratic excess (Q5927538)

The author provides an explanation for the ``quadratic excess'' phenomenon investigated by \textit{B. W. Brock} and \textit{A. Granville} [More points than expected on curves over finite field extensions, Finite Fields Appl. 7, 70-91 (2001; Zbl 1023.11029)]. Given integers \(g \geq 1\) and \(r\geq 1\) and a prime power \(q\), define \(A(g,q,r)\) to be the weighted average value of \(\#C({\mathbb F}_{q^r})\) as \(C\) ranges over the set of isomorphism classes of genus-\(g\) curves over \({\mathbb F}_q\), where each curve is assigned a weight inversely proportional to the size of its automorphism group. (In the case \(g=1\) one uses the automorphism group of \(C\) as an elliptic curve, not as a genus-\(1\) curve.) One of the main results of the Brock-Granville paper is that for fixed \(g\) and \(r\) we have \[ A(g,q,r) = \begin{cases} q^r + o(q^{r/2}) & \text{ if \(r\) is odd or }r > 2g; \cr q^r + q^{r/2} + o(q^{r/2}) & \text{ if }r = 2, 4, \ldots, 2g.\end{cases} \] Brock and Granville also show that the same result holds when one considers the average number of points on hyperelliptic curves. The main result of the present paper is that for \(r=1\) and \(r=2\) analogous statements hold for many other families of varieties -- in the author's words, ``roughly speaking, any family of varieties whose monodromy is irreducible, nontrivial, and self-dual.'' For example, an analog of the Brock-Granville result holds for the family \({\mathcal H}_{n,d}\) of degree-\(d\) hypersurfaces in \({\mathbb P}^{n+1}\). In fact, for the family \({\mathcal H}_{n,d}\) the author shows that an analog of the Brock-Granville result holds for all values of \(r\). Let \(S\) be a smooth positive-dimensional geometrically connected scheme \(S\) over a field \(k\), and let \(\pi:{\mathcal C}\to S\) be a proper smooth family of geometrically connected curves of genus \(g\). The author considers the rank-\(2g\) lisse sheaf \({\mathcal F} = R^1\pi_*\overline{\mathbb Q}_\ell\), where \(\ell\) is a prime integer that is nonzero in \(k\). Suppose that \({\mathcal F}\) is irreducible as a representation of the geometric monodromy group of \(\pi\). The author shows that then there is an analog of the cases \(r=1\) and \(r=2\) of the Brock-Granville theorem that holds for the family \(\pi\); the proof boils down to a computation of the Frobenius-Schur indicator of the representation \({\mathcal F}\). Suppose \(\pi:{\mathcal V}\to S\) is a family of higher-dimensional varieties. Under certain restrictions on the geometric monodromy of \(\pi\), the author is able to use the Deligne equidistribution theorem to prove analogs of the Brock-Granville result that are valid for all values of \(r\).