Variation of the unit root along the Dwork family of Calabi-Yau varieties (Q957892)

This paper studies the variation of the unit roots of the Dwork families of Calabi-Yau varieties defined over a finite field. The methods used in this investigation are the Dwork-Katz theory and the theory of formal group laws. A \(p\)-adic analytic formula for the unit roots away from the Hasse locus is obtained. Let \(n\geq 2\) be an integer and let \({\mathbb{F}}_q\) be be the finite field in which \(n+1\) is invertible. The Dwork family \(V_t\) over \({\mathbb{F}}_q\) is the one-parameter family of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in \({\mathbb{P}}^n\) over \(t\in{\mathbb{P}}^1\) defined by the equation \({\mathcal{P}}_t(X)=0\) where \[ {\mathcal{P}}_t(X) =X_1^{n+1}+X_2^{n+1}+\cdots+X_{n+1}^{n_1}-(n+1)X_1X_2\cdots X_{n+1} \] The paper studies the variation along \(t\) of the zeta-function of \(V_t\). It is shown that the zeta-function of \(V_t\) is closely related to the unique holomorphic solution \(F\) of the Picard--Fuchs differential equation of the Dwork family. In fact, \(F\) is shown to be a generalized hypergeometric series. The Hasse invariant of the Dwork family is defined, and a \(p\)-adic formula for the unit root of \(V_t\), as a ratio of \(F\) and its Frobenius twist, is obtained. The formula is derived by two different methods. One is the method of \textit{N. Katz} [``Travaux de Dwork'', Sem. Bourbaki 1971/72, No. 409, Lect. Notes Math. 317, 167--200 (1973; Zbl 0259.14007)], and constructs the global horizontal section for the Dwork family explicitly. The other approach is to study the Frobenius action via formal groups associated to the Dwork family. The formal group law is explitly determined for the Dwork family, and the series \(F\) appears as a \(p\)-adic limit of the coefficients of the logarithm of the formal group law.