Abelian varieties over finitely generated fields and the conjecture of Geyer and Jarden on torsion (Q2852501)

Let \(A\) be a polarized abelian variety defined over a finitely generated field \(K\). Let \(K_{\mathrm{sep}}\) be the separable closure of \(K\), and \(G_K:=\mathrm{Gal}(K_{\mathrm{sep}}/K)\), the absolute Galois group of \(K\). For a positive integer \(e\) let \(\sigma\) be an element \( (\sigma_1,\dots,\sigma_e)\) of the product \(G_K^e\), and denote by \(K_{\mathrm{sep}}(\sigma)\) the subfield of \(K_{\mathrm{sep}}\) fixed by the automorphisms \(\sigma_1,\dots, \sigma_e\). Let's say that a property \(P(\sigma)\) \textit{holds for almost all \(\sigma \in G_K^e\)} if \(P(\sigma)\) holds for all \(\sigma\in G_K^e\) except for a set of measure zero with respect to the unique normalized Haar measure on the compact group \(G_K^e\). \textit{W.-D. Geyer} and \textit{M. Jarden} [Isr. J. Math. 31, 257--297 (1978; Zbl 0406.14025)] conjectured the following:NEWLINENEWLINE(a) For almost all \(\sigma\in G_K^e\) there are infinitely many prime numbers \(\ell\) such that the group \(A(K_{\mathrm{sep}}(\sigma))[\ell]\) of \(\ell\)-division points is nonzero; (b) If \(e\geq 2\), then for almost all \(\sigma\in G_K^e\) there are only finitely many prime numbers \(\ell\) such that the group \(A(K_{\mathrm{sep}}(\sigma))[\ell]\) of \(\ell\)-division points is nonzero.NEWLINENEWLINELet \(\rho : G_K \to \Aut(A[\ell])\) be the Galois representation of the \(\ell\)- division points, and \(A\) is said to \textit{have big monodromy } if there exists a constant \(\ell_0\) such that the image of \(\rho\) contains the symplectic group \(\mathrm{Sp}(A[\ell],e_\ell)\) for all \(\ell \geq \ell_0\) where \(e_\ell\) is the Weil pairing on \(A[\ell]\). The authors of the paper under review prove the conjecture of Geyer and Jarden for abelian varieties \(A/K\) that have big monodromy. If we further assume that \(K\) is an infinite field, then either of the following two properties guarantees that \(A\) has big monodromy: (i) \(A\) is of Hall type; (ii) \(\mathrm{char}(K)=0\), \(\mathrm{End}(A)=\mathbb{Z}\), and \(\dim(A)=2,6\), or odd. An abelian variety \(A\) over a finitely generated field \(K\) is of \textit{Hall type} if \(\mathrm{End}(A)=\mathbb Z\), and the connected component of the special fiber of the Néron model \(\mathcal A \to \mathrm{Spec}(\mathcal O_v)\) of \(A\) over a discrete valuation ring \(\mathcal O_v\) is an extension of an abelian variety by a \(1\)-dimensional torus. The authors' main result applies to abelian varieties of Hall type, and hence, it provides us with the first examples of \(\dim A \geq 2\) and \(\mathrm{char}(K)>0\) for which the conjecture of Geyer and Jarden is true.