The rank of abelian varieties over infinite Galois extensions (Q5960983)

The paper under review takes up a question formulated by \textit{G. Frey} and \textit{M. Jarden} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 28, 112-128 (1974; Zbl 0275.14021)]: If \(A\) is an abelian variety of positive dimension over some number field \(k\), does \(A\) acquire infinite Mordell-Weil rank over the maximal abelian extension \(k^{ab}\) of \(k\)? Frey and Jarden showed that the answer is yes for elliptic curves, even with the maximal elementary abelian 2-extension instead of \(k^{ab}\). This was generalized to Jacobians of certain cyclic covers of the projective line having a \(k\)-rational Weierstrass point by \textit{H. Imai} [Kodai Math. J. 3, 56-58 (1980; Zbl 0439.14003)], \textit{J. Top} [Tôhoku Math. J. (2) 40, 613-616 (1988; Zbl 0688.14027)], and \textit{N. Murabayashi} [Acta Arith. 64, 297-302 (1993; Zbl 0785.14011)]. The authors now extend these result by proving the following theorem. Let \(C \to {\mathbb P}^1\) be a geometrically irreducible cyclic cover of degree \(n\), defined over \(k\), such that \(C\) has positive genus. Then there exists a divisor \(d\) of \(n\), which can be taken either as a power of 2 or as an odd prime such that the Jacobian of \(C\) has infinite rank over the maximal abelian extension of \(k\) of exponent \(d\). This implies a positive answer to Frey and Jarden's question for absolutely simple principally polarized abelian surfaces. In a similar vein, the authors obtain a result on general abelian varieties as follows. If \(A\) is a \(d\)-dimensional abelian variety over \(k\) (\(d > 0\)) having a degree-\(n\) projective embedding over \(k\), then \(A\) acquires infinite rank over the compositum of all extensions of \(k\) of degree \(< n(4d+2)\). This result is obtained by studying ramification properties of division points on \(A\).