Some criteria for reducible abelian varieties (Q755820)

A principally polarized abelian variety is called reducible if it is isomorphic to a product of two abelian varieties of positive dimensions. For a principal polarization L, it is well known that \(L^{\otimes 2}\) determines a morphism. Its image is called a Wirtinger variety. If a principally polarized abelian variety is irreducible, then the Wirtinger variety coincides with the Kummer variety associated to this polarized abelian variety. Moreover if an abelian variety is sufficiently general, then the Wirtinger variety is not contained in any conics. On the other hand, if a principally polarized abelian variety is reducible, then the Wirtinger variety is contained in many conics. Our main purpose is to give conditions for reducibility of an abelian variety in terms of conics which contain the Wirtinger variety associated to the abelian variety.