Constraints on the automorphism group of a curve (Q2397946)

Let \(X\) be an irreducible algebraic curve of genus g defined over a field \(K\). It is known that if \(g>1\) then the automorphism group \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) of \(X\) over \(K\) if finite. Furthermore, if the characteristic of \(K\) is equal to zero, then the classical Hurwitz upper bound \(84(g-1)\) holds for \(|\mathrm{Aut}(X)|\). This bound can fail in positive characteristic \(p>0\), for example if \(|\mathrm{Aut}(X)|\) is divisible by \(p\). By a result due to \textit{H. Stichtenoth} [Arch. Math. 24, 527--544 (1973; Zbl 0282.14006)] \(|\mathrm{Aut}(X)| < 16g^4\) unless \(X\) is isomorphic to the Hermitian curve. This result was refined by Henn, providing the complete list, up to isomorphism, of the algebraic curves \(X\), of genus at least 2, such that \(|\mathrm{Aut}(X)|\) is at least equal to \(8g^3\). Even if these results give bounds for the possible order of \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) it is not easy in general to determine which values can occur as orders of automorphism groups of algebraic curves. In this paper the authors analyze the case in which \(K\) is a number field. The reduction of a curve \(X\) at a prime of \(K\) of good reduction is a curve \(Y\) defined over a finite field \(\mathrm{GF}(q)\). It is known that \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) injects to \(\mathrm{AutGF}(q)(Y)\) and, even if this inclusion can be strict in general, any information allowing to discard orders of elements in \(\mathrm{AutGF}(q)(Y)\) would be useful to determine the possible orders for \(|\mathrm{Aut}(X)|\). The main results of the paper are contained in Section 2. Let \(X\) is a curve which is not rational nor elliptic defined over \(\mathrm{GF}(q)\) and let \(s>1\) be a power of a rational prime. Theorem 2.1 provides a criterion under certain conditions on the sequence \(\{|X(\mathrm{GF}(q^n))|\}n\) depending on \(s\), that ensures the non-existence of elements of order \(s\) in \(\mathrm{AutGF}(q)(X)\). In Section 3 this criterion is applied to modular curves. More precisely, in Section 3, the authors first test their criterion on 18 modular curves for which Baker and Hasegawa proved that their automorphism groups are trivial, and then they used the criterion to determine the automorphism group of 12 other modular curve of high genus.