Automorphisms of prime order of smooth cubic \(n\)-folds (Q636737)

The authors study automorphisms of smooth cubic hypersurfaces of the projective space \(\mathbb{P}^{n+1}\). The main result of the paper says that a prime number \(p\) is the order of an automorphism of such a hypersurface if and only if there exists an \(\ell \in \{1,\ldots n+2\}\) such that \((-2)^\ell \equiv 1 \mod p\). Using this criterion the authors show that all prime orders automorphisms of hypersurfaces satisfy \(p< 2^{n+1}\). Also a characterizeation of smooth cubic \(n\)-folds admitting automorphisms of prime order \(p> 2^n\) is given. One of the main tools of study is the characterization of automorphisms of smooth hypersurfaces as linear automorphisms of the ambient projective space. Finally, the authors give an application to the moduli space of principally polarized abelizan varieties.