About the Fricke-Macbeath curve (Q1746635)

If \(S\) is a compact Riemann surface of genus \(g \geq 2\), then the automorphism group \(\mathrm{Aut}(S)\) has order at most \(84(g-1)\). When \(S\) satisfies this upper bound, it is said to be a Hurwitz curve. It is well known since XIX century that there is such a surface of genus \(3\), the Klein's quartic, having automorphism group isomorphic to \(\mathrm{PSL}(2,7)\) of order \(168\), while there is no Hurwitz curve for genera \(2, 4, 5\) or \(6\). In [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. III Ser. 15, 527--542 (1965; Zbl. 0146.42705)], \textit{A. M. Macbeath} proved that there exists exactly one Hurwitz curve of genus \(7\), the so-called Fricke-Macbeath curve. Its automorphism group is isomorphic to \(\mathrm{PSL}(2,8)\) of order \(504\). In his paper, Macbeath gave an explicit equation for the curve, as the fiber product of three elliptic curves. Since then, other descriptions have been obtained for the Fricke-Macbeath curve. Among other approaches, \textit{W. L. Edge} in [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. III Ser. 17, 207--225 (1967; Zbl. 0196.53602)] constructed a family of Riemann surfaces \(S_\mu\) of genus \(7\) having \(\mathbb{Z}_2^3\) as a subgroup of their automorphism group, and chose one of them having an additional automorphism of order \(7\). This one is then the Fricke-Macbeath curve. The paper under review gives a way to obtain a new set of equations defining the Fricke-Macbeath curve. It is related to the construction by Edge, in the sense that it starts with the above family \(S_\mu\). The author describes an isogenous decomposition of the Jacobian variety of \(S_\mu\) as a product of seven given elliptic curves, and finds the specific \(\mu ^0\) such that \(S_{\mu^0}\) is the Fricke-Macbeath curve. This explicit construction of the curve is given in Theorem 3.3.