Twists of the Albanese varieties of cyclic multiple planes with large ranks over higher dimension function fields (Q2219658)

The group \(A(k)\) of rational points of an abelian variety \(A\) defined over a field \(k\) is of great interest. The well-known Mordell-Weil theorem states that if \(k\) is a number field, then \(A(k)\) is finitely-generated. The calculation of the rank is a difficult task. As a matter of fact, \textit{D. Ulmer} proved in [Invent. Math. 167, No. 2, 379--408 (2007; Zbl 1110.11019)] that, for any given dimension and any prime \(p\), there exist abelian varieties defined over \(\mathbb{F}_p(t)\) of arbitrarily large rank. This papers provides a method to construct abelian varieties with large ranks, by means of the theory of Albanese varieties and twists. It presents some generalizations, and uses some fundamental results on the author's previous work [J. Number Theory 195, 330--337 (2019; Zbl 1481.14045)]. Let \(k\) be any field containing an \(n\)th root of unity, for a fixed integer \(n\geq 2\) (not dividing the characteristic of \(k\), if it is positive). Let \(\mathcal{X}_n\) be the non-singular projective model of the hypersurface define by the affine equation \(w^n=f(x,y)\), where \(f\) is any polynomial of degree \(\geq 2\), let \(\mathcal{U}_m\) be the product of \(m\geq 2\) copies of \(\mathcal{X}_n\), and \(\mathcal{V}_n\) the quotient of \(\mathcal{U}_m\) by a certain cyclic subgroup of \(\Aut(\mathcal{U}_m)\). Denote by \(\mathcal{L}=k(\mathcal{U}_m)\) and \(\mathcal{K}=k(\mathcal{V}_m)\) the function field of \(\mathcal{U}_m\) and \(\mathcal{V}_m\), respectively. Let \(\widetilde{\mathcal{X}}_n\) be the twist of \(\mathcal{X}_n\) by the cyclic extension \(\mathcal{L}/\mathcal{K}\), and \(\mathrm{Alb}(\mathcal{X}_n)\) the Albanese variety of \(\mathcal{X}_n\). Then we have (Theorem 1.1) \[ \widetilde{\mathrm{Alb}(\mathcal{X}_n)}(\mathcal{K}) \cong \mathrm{Alb}(\widetilde{\mathcal{X}}_n)(\mathcal{K}) \cong (\mathrm{End}(\mathrm{Alb}(\mathcal{X}_n)))^m \oplus \mathrm{Alb}(\mathcal{X}_n)[m](k), \] provided that \(\mathcal{X}_n\) has at least one rational point. Here, for an abelian variety \(A\), we denote by \(A[n](k)\) the \(n\)-torsion points of \(A\) that are defined over \(k\). Hence, the rank of this twisted variety \(\widetilde{\mathrm{Alb}(\mathcal{X}_n)}\) equals \(m\) times the rank of \(\mathrm{End}(\mathrm{Alb}(\mathcal{X}_n))\), and so we can obtain arbitrarily large ranks. Under some assumptions (Assumption 2.1), the author gives in Theorem 1.3 a lower bound for the rank. Namely, provided that \(k\) is a number field containing a primitive \(n\)th root of unity, we have \[ rank (\widetilde{Alb(\mathcal{X}_n)}(\mathcal{K})) \geq m\times \left\{ \begin{array}{ccc} 2d_n^2, & & n\in\{3,4,5,6,10\}\\ d_n^2-8n_1 n_2, & \text{where } n_1+n_2=d_n/2, & n\in\{8,12\} \end{array} \right. \] where \(d_n=\dim (Alb(\mathcal{X}_n))\). The equality holds for all \(n\) except \(n=8\). The author provides also, in Theorem 1.4, a more explicit description of the rank for \(n=6\), which would allow to construct explicit examples.