Elliptic curves on abelian surfaces (Q1340234)

The aim of this note is to classify the set of elliptic curves lying on an abelian surface \(A\) defined over an algebraically closed field. The main result is that the map \(E \mapsto [E]\) induces a bijective correspondence between the set of elliptic subgroups \(E\) of \(A\) and the set of primitive classes \(d\) in the Néron-Severi group NS\((A)\) of \(A\) satisfying \(d^ 2 = 0\) and \(d \cdot \theta > 0\) for some (hence any) polarization \(\theta\). As corollaries, one gets that if there are more than two elliptic subgroups, there are infinitely many (Bolza- Poincaré), and that a given abelian surface has only finitely many elliptic subgroups of bounded degree. Fixing a polarization \(\theta\), define a quadratic form on NS\((A, \theta) =\text{NS}(A)/ \mathbb{Z} \theta\) by \(\Delta (d) = (d \cdot \theta)^ 2 - \theta^ 2 d^ 2\); the polarized abelian surface \((A, \theta)\) is said to satisfy a singular relation with invariant \(N\) if there exists a primitive class \(d\) in NS\((A, \theta)\) with \(\Delta (d) = N\). This purely algebraic definition is shown to coincide with Humbert's analytic definition in the complex case. It is shown that a principally polarized abelian surface has an elliptic subgroup of degree \(n\) if and only if it satisfies a singular relation with invariant \(n^ 2\), a theorem of Biermann and Humbert. The author gives a description of the corresponding Humbert surface (the locus of these abelian surfaces in the moduli space \({\mathcal A}_ 2)\), and translates the above results when \(A\) is the Jacobian of a smooth curve of genus 2.