Explicit two-cover descent for genus 2 curves (Q2674249)

Let \(C\) be a nice curve of genus 2 with a rational Weierstraß point, described by an explicit hyperelliptic equation. This article describes the construction of a finite set of twists \(Z_{\delta}\) of a curve of genus 5 such that the rational points on \(C\) are obtained from those on the \(Z_{\delta}\) by means of an explicit correspondence. The construction of the curves \(Z_{\delta}\) uses the (desingularized) twisted Kummer surface instead of the twisted Jacobian from [\textit{V.E. Flynn}, \textit{D. Testa}, and \textit{R. van Luijk}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 104, No. 2, 387--429 (2012; Zbl 1235.14025)], which ensures that these curves are of relatively small genus. The article furnishes an explicit description of the \(Z_{\delta}\) as an intersection of quadrics, and it describes the correspondences of these curves with \(C\) as well, in that maps from the \(Z_{\delta}\) to \(\mathbb{P}^1\) are constructed such that the \(x\)-coordinates of any rational point on \(C\) is the image of a rational point on one of the \(Z_{\delta}\). What makes this result so valuable is that the Jacobian of \(Z_{\delta}\), which is a curve whose genus is after all larger than that of \(C\), can be described as a restriction of scalars of a curve of genus 1 with respect to an étale algebra over the ground field. This often makes it possible to determine the set of rational points on \(C\) by applying the elliptic Chabauty method over an extension of the base field. The author has written a full implementation of these constructions, which is robust enough to deal with the curves with a rational Weierstraß point over \(\mathbb{Q}\) that appear in the LMFDB. The details and potential bottlenecks of these algorithms are not only thoroughly discussed, but also illustrated by means of useful examples.