On the Jacobian Varieties of Picard Curves: Explicit Addition Law and Algebraic Structure (Q4934183)

By a Picard curve the authors understand a projective plane curve with affine equation \(y^3=p(x)\), where \(p\) is a square-free polynomial of degree 4. Picard curves have genus 3 (being non-singular plane quartics) and a unique point \(\infty\) at infinity; hence any divisor \(D\) of degree 0 on a Picard curve is linearly equivalent to a divisor \(D^*-d^*\infty\), where \(d^*=\deg D^* \leq 3\), and \(D^*\) is an effective divisor supported on finite points, non-collinear if \(d^*=3\). The first part of the paper sketches an algorithm for effecting this reduction, i.e. for finding \(D^*\) given \(D\). The second part obtains an explicit description of the Jacobian of a Picard curve, using the divisors \(D^*-d^*\infty\) as representatives of classes of divisors of degree zero, analogous to the description of the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve given by \textit{D. Mumford} [``Tata Lectures on Theta. II: Jacobian theta functions and differential equations'', Prog. Math. 43 (1984; Zbl 0549.14014)]. The paper by \textit{E. R. Barreiro, J. Estrada Sarlabous} and \textit{J.-P. Cherdieu} [in: Coding theory, cryptography and related areas, Proc. Int. Conf., Guanajuato 1998, 13-28 (2000)] is a sequel to the paper under review, in which some improvements are made and some topics clarified.