Étale double covers of cyclic $p$-gonal covers (Q2324656)

Let \(Y\to X\) be an étale double covering of a cyclic cover \(X\to\mathbb{P}^1\) of prime degree \(p\). Mumford showed that if \(p=2\), then \(Y\to\mathbb{P}^1\) is Galois with Galois group isomorphic to the Klein group of order \(4\), and that the Prym variety \(\mathsf{P}(Y/X)\) is isomorphic to a Jacobian or the product of two Jacobians, as principally polarized abelian varieties. The authors of the paper under review introduce a general result that is analogous to Mumford's for all odd primes \(p\). In terms of the Galois structure, the authors prove that ``for all odd primes \(p\), the cover \(Y\to\mathbb{P}^1\) is not Galois'', and ``the Galois group of its Galois closure is isomorphic to the semi-direct product \(\mathbb{Z}_2^{p-1}\rtimes\mathbb{Z}_p\).'' Let \(Z\to\mathbb{P}^1\) be a cover defined by the Galois closure of \(Y\to\mathbb{P}^1\). Then, \(Y\) is identified with \(Z/H\) where \(H\) is a maximal subgroup of the component \(\mathbb{Z}_2^{p-1}\). As the component \(P:=\mathbb{Z}_p\) acts on the maximal subgroups by conjugation, it generates étale double covers \(Y_i \to X\) for \(i = 1,\dots, m := (2^{p-1}-1)/p\), and the authors prove that ``\(\prod_{i=1}^m \mathsf{P}(Y_i/X) \to J(Z/P)\) is an isogeny with kernel in the \(2^{p-2}\)-division points'' where \(J(Z/P)\) is the Jacobian of \(Z/P\). Using their method, the authors also prove the case of \(p=2\), which is different from Mumford's approach.