Trace of abelian varieties over function fields and the geometric Bogomolov conjecture (Q1656822)

This paper proves the geometric Bogomolov conjecture for any abelian variety by investigating closed subvarieties of abelian schemes over constant varieties. Here, constant varieties mean varieties over a function field which can be defined over the constant field of the function field. Let \(k\) be an algebraically closed field. Let \(\mathcal{B}\) be an irreducible normal projective variety of dimension \(b\geq 1\) over \(k\). Let \(K\) be the function field of \(\mathcal{B}\) and let \(\bar{K}\) be an algebraic closure of \(K\). Let \(A\) be an abelian variety over \(\bar{K}\). Then, there exists a unique pair \((\tilde{A}^{\bar{K}/k}, \mbox{Tr}_A)\) consisting of an abelian variety \(\tilde{A}^{\bar{K}/k}\) over \(k\) and a homomorphism \(\mbox{Tr}_A: \tilde{A}^{\bar{K}/k}\otimes_k\bar{K}\to A\) of abelian varieties over \(\bar{K}\) with certain properties. This pair is called the \textit{trace} of \(A\). The geometric Bogomolov conjecture for abelian varieties is formulated as follows. Conjecture: Let \(A\) be an abelian variety over \(\bar{K}\). Then any irreducible closed subvariety with dense small points should be special subvariety. The geometric Bogomolov conjecture for abelian varieties is formulated as follows. Conjecture: Let \(A\) be an abelian variety over \(\bar{K}\). Then any irreducible closed subvariety with dense small points should be special subvariety. This paper has two main results concerning the geometric Bogomolov conjecture. The author introduces the notion of the \textit{nowhere degeneracy rank of} \(A\), denoted by \(\mbox{nd}-\mbox{rk}(A)\), to be the dimension of \(\mathfrak{m}\) where \(\mathfrak{m}\) is a unique maximal (with respect to inclusion) abelian subvariety of \(A\) such that \(\mathfrak{m}\) is nowhere degenerate. Theorem 1: Let \(A\) be an abelian variety over \(\bar{K}\) such that \(\mbox{dim}(\tilde{A}^{\bar{K}/k})=\mbox{nd}-\mbox{rk}(A)\). Then the geometric Bogomolov conjecture holds for \(A\). Theorem 2: Let \(A\) be an abelian variety over \(\bar{K}\) with maximal nowhere degenerate abelian subvariety \(\mathfrak{m}\) and let \(t:=\mbox{Image}(\mbox{Tr}_A)\) be the image of the \(\bar{K}/k\)-trace homomorphism of \(A\). Then the following statements are equivalent: (i) The geometric Bogomolov conjecture holds for \(A\); (ii) The geometric Bogomolov conjecture holds for \(\mathfrak{m}\); (iii) The geometric Bogomolov conjecture holds for \(\mathfrak{m}/t\), These results imply that the geometric Bogomolov conjecture can be reduced to the geometric Bogomolov conjecture for a quite special class of abelian varieties, i.e., for nowhere degenerate abelian varieties with trivial trace. The idea of the proofs is roughly as follows. For Theorem 1, the author uses the fact that a closed subvariety of \(A\) has dense small points if and only if it has canonical height \(0\), together with the description of the canonical height in terms of intersection theory over a model. This shows that when \(A\) is a constant abelian variety, a constant subvariety of canonical height \(0\) is a constant subvariety, and hence a special subvariety. Then, Theorem 1 follows from this fact and the authors previous theorem that the geometric Bogomolov conjecture holds true for an abelian variety \(A\) over \(\bar{K}\) with maximal nowhere degenerate abelian subvariety \(\mathfrak{m}\) if and only if it holds for \(\mathfrak{m}\). For Theorem 2, the proof can be reduced to the following theorem, since \(A\) can be replaced by an isogenous abelian variety. Theorem 3: Let \(A\) be a nowhere degenerate abelian varity over \(\bar{K}\) with trivial trace and let \(B\) be a constant abelian variety. Let \(X\) be a closed subvariety of \(B\times A\) and let \(Y\) and \(T\) be the projections of \(X\) to \(B\) and \(A\), respectively. Suppose that \(X\) has dense small points and assume that the geometric Bogomolov conjecture holds for \(A\). Then \(Y\) is a constant subvariety, \(T\) is a torsion subvariety, and \(X=Y\times T\).