Isogeny formulas for the Picard modular form and a three terms arithmetic geometric mean (Q877925)

In this elegant paper the authors study the moduli space of Picard curves, i.e. curve of genus \(3\) which have an equation of the form \(y^3=x(x-1)(x-\lambda_1)(x-\lambda_2)\). The Jacobian variety of these curves has complex multiplication by \(\mathbb Z[\sqrt{-3}]\). The inverse of the period map in terms of theta functions has been known for some time. The authors construct an isogeny with kernel \((\mathbb Z/3\mathbb Z)^3\) on the set of Picard curves and determine explicitly the action on theta functions. This is analogous to the relations \(\vartheta_{00}^2(2\tau)=\frac 12(\vartheta_{00}(\tau)^2 +\vartheta_{01}(\tau)^2)\) and \(\vartheta_{01}^2(2\tau)= \vartheta_{00}(\tau) \vartheta_{01}(\tau)\) which appear in Gauss' theory of the AGM. Correspondingly the authors find a map \(\Psi\) defined on a cone in \(\mathbb R^3\) which represents this isogeny. The iterates converge and the inverse of the limit can be represented as a hypergeometric function in two variables. This represents a three-variable AGM. On a two-dimensional subset it reduces to the cubic AGM of \textit{J. M. Borwein} and \textit{P. B. Borwein} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 323, No. 2, 691--701 (1991; Zbl 0275.33014)].