The Frobenius traces distribution for modular abelian surfaces (Q744828)

Let \(A\) be an abelian variety of dimension \(g\) defined over \(\mathbb{Q}\). The Sato-Tato group of \(A\) is a compact real Lie subgroup ST\(_A\leq\)USp\((2g)\) which is constructed, following Serre, in terms of \(l\)-adic monodromy groups. Certain conjugacy classes \(s(p)\in\mathrm{Cl}(ST_A)\) of the Sato-Tate group, associated to good primes \(p\) of \(A\), are the subject of the famous Generalised Sato-Tate conjecture. More specifically, given a prime \(p\) not dividing the conductor of \(A\), one considers the characteristic polynomial \(P_p(x)\in\mathbb{Z}[x]\) of the Frobenius endomorphism acting on the Tate module of \(A/\mathbb{F}_p\). The afforementioned conjecture then states that, firstly, the characteristic polynomial of \(s(p)\) is equal to the normalization \(Q_p(x)=\frac{1}{p^g}P_p(\sqrt{p}x)\), and, secondly, the conjugacy classes \(s(p)\) are equidistributed with respect to the measure of \(\mathrm{Cl}(\mathrm{Cl}(\mathrm{ST}_A)\) induced by the Haar measure of \(\mathrm{ST}_A\). \newline The case \(g=1\) having been studied elsewhere, the present paper is interested in a weaker form of this conjecture when \(g=2\). In this scenario, one may write the normalized characteristic polynomial \(Q_p(x)\) as a quartic of the form \(Q_p(x)=x^4-\frac{A_p}{\sqrt{p}}x^3+\frac{B_p}{p}x^2-\frac{A_p}{\sqrt{p}}x+1,\) where \(A_p\in[-4\sqrt{p},4\sqrt{p}]\) and \(B_p\in[-6p,6p].\) The unknowns \(A_p,B_p\in\mathbb{Z}\) are often called the first and second Frobenius trace respectively. One expects that the sequence \(\{\frac{A_p}{\sqrt{p}}:p\text{ good}\}\) (resp. \(\{\frac{B_p}{p}:p\text{ good}\}\)) of normalized first (resp. second) Frobenius traces are equidistributed by certain measures \(\mu_1\) (resp. \(\mu_2\)). Moreover, one can seek to determine all such pairs of \(\mu_1,\mu_2\). \newline Preceeding the paper under review, [\textit{F. Fité} et al., Compos. Math. 148, No. 5, 1390--1442 (2012; Zbl 1269.11094)] proved that, when \(\mathbb{Z}=\)End\(_{\mathbb{Q}}(A)\), there are 34 possibilities for \(\mathrm{ST}_A\) which are characterized by their \textit{Galois type}. The 34 associated measures \(\mu_{\text{Cl}(ST_A)}\) induce 34 different pairs of measures \((\mu_1,\mu_2)\) for which the sequences of normalized Frobenius traces are respectively equidistributed. \newline This paper sets out to analyse the complementary setting, namely, the case in which \(\mathbb{Z}\) is a proper subset of End\(_{\mathbb{Q}}(A)\). This amounts to the so-called modular case, which is to say that there exists a surjective morphism \(\pi:\text{Jac}(X_1(M))\rightarrow A\) for some integer \(M>0\). In this situation, one has the advantage of obtaining the polynomials \(P_p(x)\) from the Fourier coefficients of particular weight two newforms attached to \(A\). It is proved that there exist at least 15 pairs \((\mu_1,\mu_2)\) with the desired properties. Furthermore, assuming a conjecture concerning the independence of distributions, it is shown that there are exactly 18 such pairs. The moments and distributions of all 18 pairs are given.