The existence of supersingular curves of genus 4 in arbitrary characteristic (Q2221685)

This paper proves the existence of a supersingular curves of genus \(4\) over an algebraically closed field of characteristic \(p>0\). The existence results in the cases \(p=2\) and \((g,p)=(4,3)\) were already known. Thus the main existence result is for the case \(p>3\). This is proved showing the exisence of a supersingular Howe curve. A Howe curve is a curve which is isomorphic to the fiber product \(E_1\times_{\mathbf{P}^1} E_2\) of two double covers \(E_i\to {\mathbb{P}^1}\) ramifid over \(S_i\), where \(S_i\) consists of \(4\) points with \(|S_1\cap S_2|=1\) (\(i=1,2\)). The existence of a supersingular Howe curve of genus \(4\) is equivalent to the existence of two supersingular elliptic curves \(E_1: y^2=f_1\) and \(E_2: y^2=f_2\) with coprime pairs \((f_1,f_2)\) of separable cubic polynomials such that the hyperelliptic curve \(C: y^2=f_1f_2\) of genus \(2\) is also supersingular.