On holomorphic polydifferentials in positive characteristic (Q2888903)

The author studies the Galois module structure of spaces of holomorphic polydifferentials of certain curves with function field \(F\) of the form NEWLINE\[NEWLINE \Omega_F(m)=\{ f dg^{\otimes m}: f,g\in F \text{ and } \mathrm{div}(f dg^{\otimes m}) \geq 0\}, NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where \(g\) is a separating element. This is a classical object of study when the field is algebraically closed of characteristic zero, that goes back to Hurwitz.NEWLINENEWLINEThe author focusses on the case of an algebraically closed field \(K\) of positive characteristic. The situation is much more difficult than the characteristic zero: there is wild ramification in the covering and also phenomena of modular representation theory occur. Describing the Galois module structure means describing the indecomposable summands that appear in the \(K[G]\)-module \(\Omega_F(m)\) and their multiplicities.NEWLINENEWLINEThe method of study is based on previous work of Valentini, Madan, Calderon, Salvador and Madden [\textit{D. J. Madden}, J. Number Theory 10, 303--323 (1978; Zbl 0384.12008); \textit{M. Rzedowski-Calderón, G. Villa-Salvador} and \textit{M. L. Madan}, Arch. Math. 66, No.2, 150--156 (1996; Zbl 0854.11061); \textit{R. C. Valentini} and \textit{M. L. Madan}, J. Number Theory 13, 106--115 (1981Zbl 0468.14008)] who considered the \(m=1\) case. First a basis of holomorphic polydifferentials is described and then the \(K[G]\)-summands are studied. The multiplicities are described in terms of Boseck invariants. These are invariants first introduced by \textit{H. Boseck} [``Zur Theorie der Weierstrasspunkte'', Math. Nachr. 19, 29--63 (1958; Zbl 0085.02701)]. The author extends their definition to any ramified cover of the projective line. The cases that are studied are the two extreme cases of \(p\)-abelian covers of the projective line, namely elementary abelian groups, that are expressed in terms of Artin-Schreier extensions and cyclic groups that are described as a tower of normalized \(p\)-cyclic covers of the projective line. The method of proof in these two cases are different but the final results are similar.NEWLINENEWLINEThe main application given in this article is the computation of the tangent space of the global deformation functor of curves with automorphisms. According to [\textit{A. Kontogeorgis}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 210, No. 2, 551--558 (2007; Zbl 1120.14020)] this dimension is equal to the space of coinvariants NEWLINE\[NEWLINE \mathrm{dim}_K ( \Omega_F(2) \otimes_{K[G]} K). NEWLINE\]NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEA closed formula for the above dimension is given using the Galois module structure previously computed.