Differential operators and hyperelliptic curves over finite fields (Q1747933)

Let \(k =\mathbb{F}_{p}\), \(R = k[x_{1},\dots, x_{d}]\) a polynomial ring over \(k\) and \(\mathcal{D}_{R}\) the \(R\)-algebra of \(k\)-linear differential operators on \(R\). It is known that if \(0\neq f\in R\), then one can extend the natural action of \(\mathcal{D}_{R}\) to \(R_{f}\) so that \(R_{f} = \mathcal{D}_{R}{\frac{1}{f^{m}}}\) for some \(m\in\mathbb{N}\). Also, there exists \(\delta\in\mathcal{D}_{R}\) such that \(\delta(1/f) = 1/f^{p}\). For any \(e\in \mathbb{N}\), let \(R^{p^{e}} = \{g^{p}\,|\,g\in R\}\) and \(\mathcal{D}^{(e)}_{R} =\mathrm{End}_{R^{p^{e}}}(R)\). It follows from the results of \textit{A. Yekutieli} [An explicit construction of the Grothendieck residue complex. With an appendix by Pramathanath Sastry. Paris: Société Mathématique de France (1992; Zbl 0788.14011)] that \(\mathcal{D}_{R} = \bigcup_{e\geq 0}\mathcal{D}^{(e)}_{R}\), so for every \(\delta\in\mathcal{D}_{R}\), there exists \(e\geq 0\) such that \(\delta\in\mathcal{D}^{(e)}_{R}\) but \(\delta\notin\mathcal{D}^{(e')}_{R}\) for any \(e'<e\). Such number \(e\) is called the \textit{level} of \(f\). The paper under review extends the results of \textit{A. F. Boix} et al. [Matematiche 70, No. 1, 239--271 (2015; Zbl 1329.13009)] to hyperelliptic curves of genus \(g\geq 2\) defined over \(k\). Such a curve \(\mathcal{C}\) is birationally equivalent to the vanishing locus \(V(f):=\{(x:y:z)\in\mathbb{P}_{k}^{2}: f(x, y, z) = 0\}\) where \(f\) is a homogeneous polynomial of degree \(2g+1\) defined over \(k\). (It is written as \(\mathcal{C}\cong V(f)\).) It is known that \(\mathrm{Jac}(\mathcal{C})[n](\bar{k})\) is equal to \((\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})^{2g}\) if \(p\nmid n\) and if \(n = p^{m} (m > 0)\), then \(\mathrm{Jac}(\mathcal{C})[n](\bar{k}) = (\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})^{i}\) where \(i\) can take any integer value in \([0, g]\), and is called the \textit{\(p\)-rank} of \(\mathcal{C}\). (Here \(\mathrm{Jac}(\mathcal{C})\) denotes the Jacobian of \(\mathcal{C}\) and \(\bar{k}\) is the algebraic closure of \(k\).) The main result of the paper is the following theorem: Let \(f\in R\) be a homogeneous polynomial of degree \(2g+1\) such that \(\mathcal{C}\cong V(f)\) defines a hyperelliptic curve over \(\bar{k}\) of genus \(g\). Let \(e\) denote the level of \(f\) and let \(p > 2g^{2}-1\). Then: (1) \(e=2\) if \(\mathcal{C}\) is ordinary, that is, its \(p\)-rank is maximal. (2) \(e > 2\) if \(\mathcal{C}\) is supersingular (it means that \(\mathrm{Jac}(\mathcal{C})\) is isogenous over \(\bar{k}\) to the product of \(g\) supersingular elliptic curves), but not superspecial (that is, it is not isomorphic over \(\bar{k}\) to the product of \(g\) supersingular elliptic curves). The authors also give some examples showing that, beyond the ordinary and supersingular cases, the level is not enough to determine the \(p\)-rank. In particular, they give examples of hyperelliptic curves of genus 2 with \(p\)-rank \(1\) and level \(e=2\), and hyperelliptic curves of genus 2 with \(p\)-rank \(1\) and level \(e=3\). In this connection, the authors formulate the following conjecture: If \(\mathcal{C}\) is a superspecial hyperelliptic curve of genus \(g\) over \(k\), then the level of \(\mathcal{C}\) is greater than \(2\).