Prym varieties associated to graphs (Q2370284)

From the introduction: ``We describe a Prym construction which associates abelian varieties to certain graphs. More precisely, given the adjacency matrix \(A = (a_{ij} )_{i,j=1}^d\) of a vertex-transitive strongly regular graph \(\mathcal G\) along with a covering of curves \(p :C \to{\mathbb P}^1\) of degree \(D\) and a labeling \(\{x_1,...,x_d \}\) of an unramified fiber such that the induced monodromy group of \(p\) is represented as a subgroup of the automorphism group of \(G\), we construct a symmetric divisor correspondence \(D\) on \(C\times C \) which then serves to define complementary subvarieties \(P_+\) and \(P_-\) of the Jacobian \(J(C)\). The correspondence \(D\) is defined in such a way that the point \((x_i ,x_j )\) appears in \(D\) with multiplicity \(a_{ij}\), analogous to \textit{V. Kanev}'s construction [in: Theta functions, Proc. 35th Summer Res. Inst. Bowdoin Coll., Brunswick/ME 1987, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 49, part 1, 627--645 (1989; Zbl 0707.14041)]. The varieties \(P_{\pm}\) are given by \(P_{\pm} = \text{ker}(\gamma - r_{\mp}\text{id}_{J(C)})_0\), where \(r_{\pm}\) are special eigenvalues of \(A\) and \(\gamma\) is the endomorphism on \(J(C)\) canonically associated to \(D\) (i.e., sending the divisor class \([x - x_0]\) to the class \([D(x)-D(x_0)]\)). It is easy to show that \[ (\gamma -r_+ \text{id}_{J(C)})(\gamma - r_- \text{id}_{J(C)}) = 0 \] and \(P_{\pm} = \text{im}(\gamma - r_{\pm}\text{id}_{J(C)})\). In particular, if \(D\) is fixed point free and \(r_+ = 1\), then \(P_+\) is a Prym--Tyurin variety of exponent \(1 - r_-\) for \(C\). Given the ramification of \(p\) it is not hard to compute the dimension of \(P_{\pm}\). For a thorough definition of \(D\) we consider the Galois closure \(p :X\to {\mathbb P}^1\) of \(p\) and use the induced representation \(\text{Gal}(p)\to \text{Aut}(G)\) to construct symmetric correspondences \(D_+\) and \(D_-\) on \(X \times X\) (much the way \textit{J.-Y. Mérindol} did in [J. Reine Angew. Math. 461, 49--61 (1995; Zbl 0814.14043)], or \textit{R. Donagi} in [Astérisque 218, 145--175 (1993; Zbl 0820.14031)]). With \(C\) being a quotient curve of \(X\), the correspondence \(D\) is derived from \(D_{\pm}\) taking quotients and adding \(r_{\pm}\Delta_C\), where \(\Delta_C\) is the diagonal of \(C \times C\); see Section 4. Given the endomorphisms \(\gamma_{\pm}\) on \(J(X)\) canonically associated to \(D_{\pm}\), we show that \(\text{im}\gamma_{\pm}\) and \(P_{\pm}\) are isogenous. The lattice graphs \(L_2(n), n\geq 3\), and their complements \(\overline{L_2(n)}\) offer important examples. For instance, applying the method to \(\overline{L_2(n)}\) and appropriate coverings \(C\to {\mathbb P}^1\) of degree \(n\) with branch loci of cardinality \(2(l+2n-2)\) for \(l\geq 1\), we obtain \(l\)-dimensional Prym--Tyurin varieties of exponent \(n\) for the curves \(C\); see Section 7. We give a characterization of these varieties and show that for \(n = 3\) they coincide with the non-trivial Prym--Tyurin varieties of exponent \(3\) described by [\textit{H. Lange, S. Recillas} and \textit{A. M. Rojas}, J. Algebra 289, 594--613 (2005; Zbl 1089.14005)].''