Asymptotically good towers of function fields with small \(p\)-rank (Q2238919)

Let \({\mathbb F}_q\) be a finite field of characteristic \(p\). For a function field \(F\) over \({\mathbb F}_q\), \(g(F)\) denotes the genus of \(F\) and \(N(F)\) the number of rational places in \(F\). A tower of function fields is an infinite sequence \({\mathcal F}=\big(F_i\big)_{i\geq 0}\) of function fields \(F_i\) over \({\mathbb F}_q\) such that \(F_0\subseteq F_1\subseteq F_2\subseteq\ldots \), \(F_{i+1}/F_i\) is separable for all \(i\) and \(g(F_i)\xrightarrow[i\to\infty]{}\infty\). Call \(\lambda({\mathcal F}) :=\lim\limits_{i\to\infty} N(F_i)/g(F_i)\) the {\em limit} of the tower. We have \(0\leq \lambda({\mathcal F})\leq \sqrt q-1\). The tower \({\mathcal F}\) is called {\em asymptotically good} if \(\lambda({\mathcal F})>0\). Let \(\sigma({\mathcal F}):=\liminf\limits_{i\to\infty}s(F_i)/g(F_i)\) be the asymptotic \(p\)-rank of \({\mathcal F}\), where \(s(F_i)\) is the \(p\)-rank of \(F_i\). We have \(0\leq \sigma({\mathcal F}) \leq 1\). The aim of this paper is to construct asymptotically good towers \({\mathcal F}\) with \(\sigma({\mathcal F})\) as small as possible. In Section 4 the authors construct asymptotically good towers over quadratic fields \({\mathbb F}_q\), that is \(q\) is a square, whose asymptotic \(p\)-rank is small. Let \({\mathcal G}:=(G_i)_{i\geq 0}\) be the optimal tower introduced by \textit{A. Garcia} and \textit{H. Stichtenoth} [J. Number Theory 61, No. 2, 248--273 (1996; Zbl 0893.11047)]. That is: \(G_1:= {\mathbb F}_q(x_1)\) is a rational function field, \(G_0:= {\mathbb F}_q(x_0)\) with \(x_0=x_1^l+x_1\) and for \(i\geq 1\), \(G_{i+1}=G_i(x_{i+1})\) with \(x_{i+1}^l+x_{i+1}=\frac{x_i^l}{ x_i^{l-1}+1}\), where \(q=l^2\). Let \(E:=G_0(y)={\mathbb F}_q (x_0,y)\) with \(y^m=x_0\). Let \({\mathcal E}=E\cdot {\mathcal G}=\big(E_i\big)_{i\geq 0}\) be the composite of the function field \(E\) and the tower \({\mathcal G}\). The main result of the paper is that \(\lambda({\mathcal E})=(l-1)\frac{\gcd(l+1,m)}{m}\) and \(\sigma({\mathcal E})=\frac 1m\). It is also shown that for any \(\varepsilon >0\), there exists a constant \(B>0\), depending on \(q\), and an asymptotically good tower \({\mathcal F}=\big(F_i\big)_{i\geq 0}\) over \({ \mathbb F}_q\) such that \(\sigma({\mathcal F})<\varepsilon\) and \(|\mathrm{Aut}(F_i)|\geq B\cdot g(F_i)\) for all \(i\geq 0\). That is, there exist function fields over \({\mathbb F}_q\) having large genus, which have simultaneously many rational points, many automorphisms and small \(p\)-rank.