The integral monodromy of hyperelliptic and trielliptic curves (Q884699)

Let \(C/S\) be a relative smooth proper curve of genus \(g\geq 1\) over an irreducible base \(S\). Let \(\ell\) be a prime number which is invertible on \(S\), and let \(s\) be a geometric point of \(S\). The fundamental group \(\pi_1(S,s)\) acts linearly on the fiber \(\text{ Pic}^0(C)[\ell]_s\) of the \(\ell\)-torsion of the relative Jacobian of \(C\). If we identify the latter with \(\mathbb Z/\ell)^{2g}\), we obtain the mod-\(\ell\) monodromy representation \(\rho_{C/S, \ell}:\pi_1(S,s)\rightarrow \text{GL}_{2g}(\mathbb Z/\ell)\). By considering powers of \(\ell\) and taking the limit, we obtain the \(\ell\)-adic monodromy representation where the target is \(\text{GL}_{2g}(\mathbb Z_\ell)\). If there is a primitive \(\ell\)-th root of unity globally on \(S\), then \(\text{Pic}^0(C)[\ell]_s\) carries an alternating form, and the image of \(\rho_{C/S,\ell}\) is contained in the corresponding symplectic group. Deligne and Mumford proved that for \(C/S\) sufficiently general, the image of \(\rho_{C/S,\ell}\) is equal to this symplectic group. In the paper under review, the authors compute the image of \(\rho_{C/S,\ell}\) in the cases when \(S\) is an irreducible component of the moduli space of hyperelliptic or trielliptic curves, and \(C/S\) is the tautological curve. In the hyperelliptic case, the image of \(\rho_{C/S,\ell}\) is the full symplectic group. This result was previously obtained by J.-k. Yu (unpublished). In the trielliptic case, there is a \(\mathbb Z/3\) action which constrains the image of the monodromy representation to lie in a certain unitary group. The theorem in this case says that the image in fact is this unitary group. There are a number of related results in the literature; see the introduction of the paper under review for further details. The proof proceeds by induction on the genus. Since every curve of genus \(g=1,2\) is hyperelliptic, the claim in this case follows from the analogous statement for the moduli space \(\mathcal M_g\) of all curves of genus \(g\). The base case \(g=3\) for the trielliptic case is done using a comparison with a Picard modular variety.