On the parity of supersingular Weil polynomials (Q267049)

Consider a supersingular abelian variety \(A\) of dimension~\(g\) over the finite field \({\mathbb F}_q={\mathbb F}_{p^n}\). Bearing in mind the case of a supersingular elliptic curve over a prime field, when the trace of Frobenius (on the Tate module \(T_\ell(E)\)) is zero as long as \(p>3\), we can ask what conditions the supersingularity imposes on the characteristic polynomial \(P_A(X)\) of Frobenius on \(T_\ell(A)\). A look at the examples where this polynomial has been computed directly immediately suggests that the answer should be that all the odd coefficients vanish, i.e.\ \(P_A(X)\) is an even function of \(X\), under not too stringent conditions. It is easy to prove that this is indeed true provided \(p\) is large enough, but simply copying the proof of the vanishing of the trace only gives a result for rather large~\(p\), roughly \(p>{{2g}\choose{g}}^2\). In this paper the authors use a more refined, but still largely elementary, argument to show that \(P_A(X)\) is even as long as \(n\) is odd and \(p>2g+1\). They note that according to examples given in [\textit{G. McGuire} et al., Funct. Approximatio, Comment. Math. 51, No. 2, 415--436 (2014; Zbl 1304.14025)], the extra condition that \(n\) is odd cannot be avoided. The proof, like the simpler version, relies on the result of Manin and Oort that says that the roots of \(P_A(X)\) are all of the form \(\sqrt{q}\times \zeta\), where \(\zeta\) is some root of unity. They combine this with the elementary result that the \(n\)th cyclotomic polynomial \(\Phi_n(X)\) is even if and only if \(4|n\), and a result from [loc. cit.] that describes the minimum polynomial of numbers of the form \(\sqrt{\pm q}\times \xi\), where \(\xi\) is a primitive \(4t\)-th root of unity. Finally, they briefly describe some of the immediate and potential consequences of their result for Iwasawa theory, as developed by \textit{S.-i. Kobayashi} [Invent. Math. 152, No. 1, 1--36 (2003; Zbl 1047.11105)] and \textit{F. E. I. Sprung} [J. Number Theory 132, No. 7, 1483--1506 (2012; Zbl 1284.11147)].