Statistics of moduli space of vector bundles (Q1729293)

Let \(X\) be a smooth projective curve of genus \(g \geq 1\) over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\) with \(q\) elements and of characteristic \(p\), such that \(\bar{X} = X \otimes_{\mathbb{F}_q} \bar{\mathbb{F}}_q\) is irreducible and the function field \(\mathbb{F}_q(X)\) is a finite Galois extension over the rational function field \(\mathbb{F}_q(x)\) of degree \(N\). Let \(L\) be a fixed degree \(1\) line bundle on \(X\). Let \(M_L(2, 1)\) be the moduli space of rank \(2\) stable vector bundles over \(X\) with fixed determinant \(L\). Let \(N_q(M_L(2, 1))\) be the cardinality of the \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-rational points of \(M_L(2, 1)\). The first result in the paper under review is an estimate of \(N_q(M_L(2, 1))\) in terms of \(N\), \(q\) and \(g\) using techniques from analytic number theory. It can be interpreted as a non-abelian analogue of the Jacobian case given by \textit{M. Xiong} and \textit{A. Zaharescu} [Math. Res. Lett. 19, No. 2, 255--272 (2012; Zbl 1297.11065)]. Next result concerns the family of hyperelliptic curves (\(N = 2\)). The authors use the notation \(\mathcal{H}_{d,q}\) to denote both the set of hyperelliptic curves of genus \(g=\lfloor(d - 1)/2\rfloor\) and the set of monic square-free polynomials of degree \(d\). The measure on \(\mathcal{H}_{d,q}\) is given by the uniform probability measure on the set of such polynomials. In the case of the Jacobian \(J\) of a hyperelliptic curve, for a fixed \(g\) and growing \(q\), \textit{N. M. Katz} and \textit{P. Sarnak} showed that \(\sqrt{q}(\operatorname{log}\,N_q(J) - g \operatorname{log}\, q)\) is distributed as the trace of a random \(2g\times 2g\) unitary symplectic matrix [Random matrices, Frobenius eigenvalues, and monodromy. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (1999; Zbl 0958.11004)]. On the other side, when the finite field is fixed and the genus \(g\) grows, Xiong and Zaharescu found the limiting distribution of \(\operatorname{log}\,N_q(J)-g \operatorname{log}\,q\) in terms of its characteristic function and when both the genus and the finite field grow, they showed that \(\sqrt{q}(\operatorname{log}\,N_q(J) - g \operatorname{log}\,q)\) has a standard Gaussian distribution. In this paper similar problems for the non-abelian variety \(M_{L}(2, 1)\) associated to a hyperelliptic curve \(H\) and any degree one line bundle \(L\) on \(\bar{H} = H \otimes_{\mathbb{F}_q} \bar{\mathbb{F}}_q\) are studied. The limiting distribution of \(\operatorname{log}\,N_q(M_L(2, 1)) - 3(g - 1)\operatorname{log}\,q\) as \(g\) grows and \(q\) is fixed is determined. When both the genus and the size of the finite field grow they prove that \(q^{3/2}(\operatorname{log}\,N_q(M_L(2, 1)) - 3(g - 1)\operatorname{log}\,q)\) has a standard Gaussian distribution.