Equations for the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve (Q4211092)

The Jacobian \(J\) of a curve defined over a field \(K\) is a projective group variety also defined over \(K\). In general it is hard to give an explicit description of the Jacobian. In the case where the curves are hyperelliptic there is a relatively explicit description of the Jacobian as an abstract variety defined over \(K\). On the other hand, if \(K\) is a subfield of \(\mathbb{C}\), then \(J(\mathbb{C})\) carries the structure of an abelian torus \(\mathbb{C}^g/\Lambda\), and this torus can be embedded into the projective space by theta functions. For a hyperelliptic curve \(y^2= f(x)\) the equations defining this variety in projective space are given by the Frobenius identities for half-integer characteristic theta functions. This description can be very useful because it is so explicit, but in general it is not isomorphic to the Jacobian over \(K\) (only over \(\mathbb{C}\)) and we therefore lose any arithmetic information. We can now ask whether we might be able to modify this description in such a way that the resulting variety would be isomorphic to the Jacobian over a smaller field. This paper gives one answer to this question. The main result is theorem 9, which gives a variety defined by theta functions which is isomorphic to the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve over the splitting field of \(f\). The description is a modification of the usual embedding of the complex points of the Jacobian into projective space using theta functions. It describes the Jacobian as an explicit projective variety and not just as an abstract variety.