Isogeny and overconvergence (Q6952597)

The authors establish a new criterion for detecting isogenies between abelian varieties over function fields of characteristic \(p > 0\), based on the structure of their associated \(p\)-divisible groups. Let \(A\) and \(B\) be abelian varieties over a function field \(K\) of characteristic \(p\), and assume that \(\mathrm{End}(A) \otimes \mathbb{Q}_p\) and \(\mathrm{End}(B) \otimes \mathbb{Q}_p\) are division algebras. Then, the main theorem shows that if the maximal isoclinic quotients of the \(p\)-divisible groups \(A[p^\infty]\) and \(B[p^\infty]\) are isogenous, then \(A\) and \(B\) themselves are isogenous over \(K\).\N\NThe proof relies crucially on Tsuzuki's minimal slope conjecture for overconvergent \(F\)-isocrystals combined with several full faithfulness results relating the category of \(p\)-divisible groups, Dieudonné crystals, convergent and overconvergent \(F\)-isocrystals, and a key lemma identifying the simplicity of the Dieudonné crystals \(D^\dagger(A)\) with the condition that \(\mathrm{End}(A) \otimes \mathbb{Q}_p\) is a division algebra.\N\NThe final part of the note extends the argument to certain \(p\)-divisible groups over varieties over finite fields and discusses possible generalizations to higher transcendence degree, for which the arguments of the main theorem carry over.