Reciprocal polynomials and curves with many points over a finite field (Q6095442)

In the paper under review, for some prime power \(q\), the authors study a family of algebraic curves over \(\mathbb{F}_{q^2}\) having many rational points. They provide new examples of such curves and improve several records on the manYPoints website. In particular, the paper focuses on a family of curves given by: \[ y^m = x^{\epsilon s} f(x)f^*(x)^\lambda, \] where \(\epsilon,\lambda\in\{1,-1\}\), \(s\in\mathbb{N}\), \(q=p^n\) with \(p\nmid m\), \(f(x)\in\mathbb{F}_{q}[x]\) and \[ f^*(x) = x^{\deg f} f(1/x). \] The authors compute the genus of this family: \[ g = (m-1)d + 1 - \frac{(m,s) + (m,\epsilon s + d + d\lambda) + d_1(m, \lambda + 1) + d_1(m-2)}{2}, \] where \((a,b)\) is the \(\gcd\) of \(a\) and \(b\) and \(d_1\) is the degree of \((f,f^*)\). Furthermore, when \(\epsilon=-1\) and \(\lambda = 1\), the number of rational points is explicitly computed. From these computations, new examples of curves with many points are given and several records from manYPoints are improved. Examples include: \begin{itemize} \item A curve of genus 13 over \(\mathbb{F}_{7^4}\) with \(3576\) rational points. \item A curve of genus 8 over \(\mathbb{F}_{11^4}\) with \(16566\) rational points. \item A curve of genus 15 over \(\mathbb{F}_{17^2}\) with \(708\) rational points. \item A curve of genus 13 over \(\mathbb{F}_{13^3}\) with \(444\) rational points. \item A curve of genus 10 over \(\mathbb{F}_{11^4}\) with \(16952\) rational points. \end{itemize} Magma was used to compute these examples.