Ordinary algebraic curves with many automorphisms in positive characteristic (Q1732978)

Let \(X\) be an ordinary (projective, geometrically irreducible, nonsingular) algebraic curve of genus \(g(X)\geq 2\) defined over an algebraically closed field \(K\) of odd characteristic \(p\). Recall that ordinary curves are those whose Hasse-Witt invariant \(\gamma(X)\) equals the genus \(g(X)\) of \(X\). We denote with \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) be the group of all automorphisms of \(X\) which fix the field \(K\) element-wise. The interest in the relations between \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\), \(g(X)\) and \(\gamma(X)\) is strong in the literature and many researches have been conducted in this direction. \textit{S. Nakajima} proved in [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 303, 595--607 (1987; Zbl 0644.14010] that ordinary curves cannot have particularly many automorphisms with respect to the value of \(g(X)\); that is, \(|\mathrm{Aut}(X)| \leq 84(g(X)^2-g(X))\). However, no extremal examples were found with respect to the aforementioned bound, giving the possibility to believe that Nakajima's bound can be in general improved. This paper obtains a result in this direction. Indeed it is proved that for any solvable subgroup \(G\) of \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) it holds that \(|G| \leq 34(g(X) + 1)^{3/2}.\) There are known curves attaining this bound up to the constant \(34\) (for example the so-called Artin-Mumford curve), proving that this bound cannot be further improved (up to the constant term). This result improves Nakajima's results and for solvable groups \(G\),the previous bound obtained Gunby-Smith-Yuan bound \(|G| \leq 6(g(X)2+12\sqrt{21}g(X)^{3/2})\) where \(g(X)\) was supposed to satisfy \(g(X)> cp^2\) for some positive constant \(c\). The methods used are finite group theory (in particular the theory of minimal normal subgroups), the Hurwitz genus and Deuring-Shafarevic formulas and representation theory.