On the Jacobians of plane cubics (Q2577489)

The Jacobian variety of a smooth plane cubic \(f=0\) over a field can be given in the form \(f^*=0\) with \(f^*\) an explicit Weierstrass form whose coefficients are homogeneous polynomials with integral coefficients in the coefficients of \(f\). \textit{A. Weil} treated the case of fields of characteristic not \(2\) and \(3\) [Arch. Math. 5, 197--202 (1954; Zbl 0056.03402)]. In the present paper this is done in the wider context of a family \(X\) of cubics in the projective plane \(\mathbb P^2\) over a base scheme \(S\). The authors give an explicit Weierstrass cubic equation \(f^*=0\) such that the smooth locus of the associated scheme represents \(\text{Pic}^0_{X/S}\). The proof uses that \(\text{Pic}^0_{X/S}\) satisfies a certain characterization of algebraic spaces that are commutative groups given by a Weierstrass equation.