Curves with prescribed symmetry and associated representations of mapping class groups (Q832490)

A classical result from Hurwitz asserts that the endomorphism ring of the Jacobian of a very general curve \(C\) of genus at least 2 is the smallest possible, i.e. it is \(\mathbb{Z}\). \textit{S. Lefschetz} [Am. J. Math. 50, 159--166 (1928; JFM 54.0410.02)] proved the same in the case of hyperelliptic curves. \textit{C. Ciliberto} et al. [J. Algebr. Geom. 1, No. 2, 215--229 (1992; Zbl 0806.14020)] studied curves whose Jacobian has endomorphism ring larger than \(\mathbb{Z}\). Finally, \textit{Y. G. Zarhin} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 136, No. 2, 257--267 (2004; Zbl 1058.14064)] considered curves with automorphisms (of a specific type) and showed that the endomorphism ring of their Jacobians is as smallest as possible. In the paper under review, the authors show that such a minimality property still holds for curves endowed with an action of a given (but arbitrary) finite group \(G\). Indeed, they show that \(\text{End}_{\mathbb{Q}}(JC)\cong \mathbb{Q}[G]\) for a very general \(G\)-curve, with quotient curve of genus at least 3. As an application, they also obtain interesting consequences on the natural representation of the centralizer of \(G\) in \(\text{Mod}(C)\), \(\rho_G: \text{Mod}(C)^G\rightarrow \text{Sp}(H^1(C,\mathbb{Q}))^G\), where \(\text{Sp}(H^1(C,\mathbb{Q}))^G\) stands for the centralizer of \(G\) in \(\text{Sp}(H^1(C,\mathbb{Q}))\), regarded as a virtual linear representation the mapping class group \(\text{Mod}(C/G)\). Indeed, let \(X(\mathbb{Q}[G])\) be the set of rational irreducible characters of \( G \), take the isomorphism \[ \text{Sp}(H^1(C,\mathbb{Q}))^G\cong \prod_{\chi \in X(\mathbb{Q}[G]) }\text{Sp}(H^1(C,\mathbb{Q})_{\chi})^G, \] which mirrors the isotypical decomposition of the Jacobian of a \(G\)-curve \(C\), and denote by \(Mon^0(C)\) the identity component of the Zariski closure of the image of \( \rho_G \) in \(\text{Sp}(H^1(C,\mathbb{Q}))^G\) and by \(\text{Mon}^0(C)_\chi\) the projection of \(\text{Mon}^0(C)\) to the factor \( \text{Sp}(H^1(C,\mathbb{Q})_{\chi})^G \). Then, the authors deduce different interesting properties on \(\text{Mon}^0(C)\) and on its factors \(\text{Mon}^0(C)_\chi\).