Fixed points and homology of superelliptic Jacobians (Q463970)

The paper under review is concerned with the Jacobian of certain cyclic covers of \({\mathbb P}^1\). Indeed, the authors study its group of fixed points under the cyclic action, some properties on the corresponding Tate module as well as facts on the polarizations on some subvarieties. Let us be more concrete. Let \(K\) be an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. Let \(N>1\) be an integer coprime to the characteristic and \(f(X)\in K[X]\) a degree \(n\) polynomial such that the cover defined by the affine equation \(Y^N=f(X)\) is totally and tamely ramified. Let \(J_N\) be the Jacobian variety of this cover. The Hurwitz formula shows easily that the genus of the curve, and hence the dimension of \(J_N\), is equal to \(g=\frac12(N-1)(n-1)\). Recall that, given \(l\) different from the characteristic of \(K\), one introduces the \(l\)-adic Tate module as the inverse limit of \(l^i\)-torsion points, that is, \(T_l J_N= \varprojlim J_N[l^i]\). It is well known that \(T_l J_N\) is a free module over \({\mathbb Z}_l\) of rank \(2g=(N-1)(n-1)\). However, using the Albanese functoriality and the fact that we are dealing with a cyclic covering of degree \(N\), one shows that the Tate module is in fact a \({\mathbb Z}_l[T]/(P_N(T))\)-module where \(P_N(T):= \frac{T^N-1}{T-1}\). Now, the main theorem states that, under the above assumptions, it holds that \(T_l J_N\) is a free module over \({\mathbb Z}_l[T]/(P_N(T))\) of rank \(n-1\). Then, some consequences are obtained regarding the first homology group of the cover and subvarieties of \(J_N\).