Genus formula for modular curves of \(\mathcal D\)-elliptic sheaves (Q1024158)

The present paper deals with the function field analogues of Shimura curves introduced by \textit{G. Laumon, M. Rapoport} and \textit{U. Stuhler} [Invent. Math. 113, No. 2, 217--338 (1993; Zbl 0809.11032)], which furnish moduli spaces of so-called \(\mathcal{D}\)-elliptic sheaves. The main results concern the derivation of a genus formula for modular curves of \(\mathcal{D}\)-elliptic sheaves and the computation of several other numerical invariants of these curves, e.g. the number of supersingular and elliptic points. As one might expect, the results are very similar to the corresponding results for Shimura curves. The determination of the points on modular curves of \(\mathcal{D}\)-elliptic sheaves over finite fields uses an analogue of Honda-Tate theory developed in [op. cit.]. As an application, the author constructs a new sequence of curves over finite fields which is asymptotically optimal.