On a number of isogeny classes of simple abelian varieties over finite fields (Q2197668)

What is being studied here is the number of isogeny classes of unpolarised abelian varieties over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\). The results present a sharp contrast with some of the results of [\textit{M. Lipnowski} and \textit{J. Tsimerman}, Duke Math. J. 167, No. 18, 3403--3453 (2018; Zbl 1426.11062)], which are concerned with (principally) polarised abelian varieties. In that case it turns out that at least for most primes \(p\), almost all principally polarised abelian varieties are isogenous to a product involving \(E^h\) (for some elliptic curve \(E\)) with \(h\) very close to \(g\). What is shown here is that, on the contrary, without the polarisation almost all isogeny classes are simple. More precisely, if \(m_q(g)\) and \(s_q(g)\) denote the number of isogeny classes, respectively simple isogeny classes, of abelian \(g\)-folds over \(\mathbb{F}_q\), then it is shown that \(s_q(g)=q^{\frac{1}{4}g^2(1+o(1))}\) (the same is true for \(m_q(g)\), by well-known results), and that \(\limsup\limits_{g\to\infty}\frac{s_q(g)}{m_q(g)}=1\). This second result follows fairly easily from the first and a result to the effect that most isogeny classes have a large simple factor: for any \(\varepsilon >0\) one has \(\lim\limits_{g\to\infty}\frac{a_L(q,g.\varepsilon)}{m_q(g)}=1\), where \(a_L(q,g,\varepsilon)\) is the number of isogeny classes containing a simple factor of dimension \((1-\varepsilon)g\). The basis for the results is the Honda-Tate theorem: rather than counting isogeny classes directly, one counts characteristic polynomials of Frobenius on the Tate module over \(\mathbb{Q}_\ell\). The actual proofs are then obtained by the astute use of more or less elementary methods.