A combinatorial Li-Yau inequality and rational points on curves (Q2255277)

Let \(X\) be a smooth projective curve over a field \(k\) and let \(\mathrm{gon}_k(X)\) denote the gonality of \(X\) which by definition is the the minimal degree of a non-constant morphism defined over \(k\) from \(X\) to the projective line \({\mathbb P}^1_k\). If \(k = {\mathbb C}\) is the field of complex numbers, \textit{P. Li} and \textit{S.-T. Yau} [Invent. Math. 69, 269--291 (1982; Zbl 0503.53042)] has established a lower bound of \(\mathrm{gon}_{\mathbb C}(X)\) in terms of the hyperbolic volume and the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian of \(X.\) The main themes of this paper under review are lower bounds for the gonalities of curves over non-Archimedean fields and their applications to the study of rational points on curves defined over global function fields. Now, let \(k\) be a complete non-Archimedean valued field with valuation ring \(R\). To establish an analogue of Li-Yau inequality in the non-Archimedean setting, the authors first prove an inequality between the geometric gonality \(\mathrm{gon}_{\bar{k}}(X)\) of \(X\) and the ``gonality'' of the reduction dual graphs of the special fiber of a stable \(R\)-model of \(X\) (Theorem~A). Namely, let \(\mathcal{X}\) be a stable \(R\)-model of \(X\) and let \(\Delta(\mathcal{X}_0)\) denote the intersection dual graph of the special fiber \(\mathcal{X}_0\). Then, the we have the inequality \(\mathrm{gon}_{\bar{k}}(X) \geq \mathrm{sgon}(\Delta(\mathcal{X}_0))\) where \(\mathrm{sgon}(G)\) denotes the \textit{stable gonality} of a finite graph \(G\) which is the minimal degree of a finite harmonic morphism from any refinement of \(G\) to a tree. The main result of this paper (Theorem~C) is a spectral lower bound for the sable gonality of a graph \(G.\) This result can seen as an analogue of Li-Yau inequality in graph theory. Although the authors showed that a strict graph theory analogue of Li-Yau inequality fails in general. A formula in terms of the first eigenvalue \(\lambda_G\) of the Laplacian of \(G\), the number of vertices \(|G|\) and the maximal vertex degree \(\Delta_G\) of \(G\) for the lower bound of \(\mathrm{sgon}(G)\) is given. Another part of this paper is to apply the main results to give lower bound for the gonality of arbitrary Drinfeld modular curves over finite field and for general congruence subgroups. This lower bound is shown to be linear in the index of the congruence subgroup in the full Drinfeld modular group. This is a positive characteristic analogue of \textit{D. Abramovich}'s result [Int. Math. Res. Not. 1996, No. 20, 1005--1011 (1996; Zbl 0878.14019)]. Arithmetic applications of these results include a statement about the uniform boundedness of torsions of rank two Drinfeld modules that improves existing results and the solution to a problem of \textit{M. Papikian} [J. Number Theory 97, No. 2, 317--349 (2002; Zbl 1067.11034)] on the lower bounds on the modular degree of certain elliptic curves over function fields.