Picard ranks of \(K3\) surfaces over function fields and the Hecke orbit conjecture (Q2138740)

It is known that any non-isotrivial family of \(K3\) surfaces over the complex number field has infinitely many special fibers where the Picard rank jumps higher than the minimal Picard rank of the fibers. This is no longer true in finite characteristic. One of the principal results (Theorem 1.1) of this paper is that over an algebraically closed field of characteristic \(p \geq 5\), a non-isotrivial family \(\mathcal X \to C\) of \(K3\)-surfaces over a proper curve \(C\) will have infinitely many closed fibers where the Picard rank jumps, provided that the generic fiber is ordinary. The result mentioned above is obtained as a consequence of the following (Theorem 1.2 of the paper). If \(\mathcal S\) is the canonical integral model over \(\mathbb Z_p\) (\(p \geq 5\)) of a Shimura variety of orthogonal type satisfying certain conditions, then any generically ordinary proper curve in \(\mathcal{S}_{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}\) intersects special divisors of \(\mathcal{S}_{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}\) at infinitely many points. The Hecke orbit conjecture predicts that ordinary points in \(\mathcal{S}_{\overline{\mathbb{F}}_p}\) have Zariski-dense Hecke orbits. As an application of the above results, the Hecke orbit conjecture is proved (Theorem 1.4) for certain orthogonal and unitary Shimura varieties in characteristic \(p \geq 5\).