On the action of automorphisms of a curve on the first \(\ell\)-adic cohomology (Q1102344)

The authors of this note investigate the character \(\lambda =\text{Tr}(G| H^ 1(X,{\mathbb{Q}}_{\ell}))\) of the action of a cyclic group \(G\) of finite order \(n\) on the first \(\ell\)-adic cohomology group of an algebraic curve \(X\) over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. They use the Lefschetz fixed point formula to show that \(a_ e\geq a_ d- 2\delta_{d,1}\) for divisors \(d,e\) of \(n\) with \(d| e\), if \(\lambda\) is written in the standard form as \(\lambda =\sum_{d| n}a_ d\chi_ d.\) As a corollary they obtain estimates \(n\leq 4g+2\) and \(n\leq 4g\), if \(n\neq 4g+2\) where g is the genus of \(X\), and the explicit structure of \(\lambda\), in the extreme cases. Based on a previous result of the second author [J. Math. Soc. Japan 39, 269-286 (1987; Zbl 0623.14009)] they also obtain a characterization of those characters of G which can be realized as \(\text{Tr}(G| H^ 0(X,\Omega_ X))\).