Prym varieties of pairs of coverings (Q4831390)

In a foregoing paper [J. Reine Angew. Math. 575, 135--155 (2004; Zbl 1072.14053)], the authors had studied a smooth projective curve \(X\) with an action of a finite group \(G\) and they had proved that the Jacobian \(J(X)\) is isogenous to a product of particular abelian subvarieties in the form \[ J(X)\sim B^{d_1}_1\times\cdots\times B^{d_r}_r, \] where the abelian subvarieties \(B_i\) correspond to the irreducible \(\mathbb Q\)-representations of the group \(G\), which also determine the numbers \(d_i\), \(1\leq i\leq r\). In the paper under review, the authors continue their study of this decomposition in terms of the curve and its group action itself. To this end, they introduce the notion of the Prym variety of a pair of coverings, which is roughly speaking the complement of the Prym variety of one morphism in the Prym variety of another morphism of curves. This concept, arising quite naturally in their framework, is first investigated under more general aspects, mainly by exhibiting the basic properties of Prym varieties of pairs of coverings. Then possible isogenies between ordinary Prym varieties and the newly defined Prym varieties of pairs of coverings are analyzed, and finally their occurrence is illustrated by the example of the isogeny decomposition of the Jacobian \(J(X)\) of a curve \(X\) acted on by the symmetric group \(S_5\).