Jacobians among Abel threefolds: a formula of Klein and a question of Serre

DOI10.4310/MRL.2010.V17.N2.A11MaRDI QIDQ2275697zbMATH OpenWikidataFDO

Authors Gilles Lachaud, Christophe Ritzenthaler, Alexey Zykin

Publication date 9 August 2011

Published in Mathematical Research Letters (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0802.4017

abelian threefold Jacobian Klein's formula Siegel modular forms Teichmüller modular forms

Siegel modular groups; Siegel and Hilbert-Siegel modular and automorphic forms (11F46) Abelian varieties of dimension (> 1) (11G10) Arithmetic ground fields for curves (14H25) Jacobians, Prym varieties (14H40) Special algebraic curves and curves of low genus (14H45) Arithmetic ground fields for abelian varieties (14K15)

Abstract: Let k be a field and f be a Siegel modular form of weight h geq 0 and genus g>1 over k. Using f, we define an invariant of the k-isomorphism class of a principally polarized abelian variety (A,a)/k of dimension g. Moreover when (A,a) is the Jacobian of a smooth plane curve, we show how to associate to f a classical plane invariant. As straightforward consequences of these constructions, when g=3 and k is a subfield of the complex field, we obtain (i) a new proof of a formula of Klein linking the modular form chi_{18} to the square of the discriminant of plane quartics ; (ii) a proof that one can decide when (A,a) is a Jacobian over k by looking whether the value of chi_{18} at (A,a) is a square in k. This answers a question of J.-P. Serre. Finally, we study the possible generalizations of this approach for g>3.

Review text

Let \(A_3\) be the moduli stack of principally polarized abelian schemes \((A,a)\) of relative dimension \(3\). Let \(k\) be a subfield of \(\mathbb{C}\) and suppose that \((A,a)\in A_3\otimes k\) is indecomposable over \(\bar{k}\). The main aim of the paper is to show that \((A,a)\) is isomorphic over \(k\) to a polarized Jacobian if and only if \(\chi_{18}(A,a)\) is a square over \(k\), where \(\chi_{18}\) is a Siegel modular form of genus \(3\) defined, up to a multiplicative constant, as the product of the \(36\) Thetanullwerte with even characteristics. This answers a question of J. P. Serre. Suppose that \((A,a)\) is isomorphic over \(k\) to \((\text{Jac}\,C,j)\), for some curve \(C/k\) of genus \(3\), where \(j\) is the canonical polarization. By taking the inverse image under the Torelli morphism \(t: C\mapsto (\text{Jac}\,C,j)\), one gets an element \(t^*\chi_{18}\) in the algebra of Teichmüller modular forms over \(k\), which turns out to be a square, according to \textit{T. Ichikawa} [Am. J. Math. 117, No. 4, 1057--1061 (1995; Zbl 0856.11024)]. The result is deduced from this fact by analyzing the action of quadratic twists on geometric Siegel modular forms. The second part of the paper uses a natural isomorphism between the algebra of invariants on the space of ternary quadratic forms with non-zero discriminant and the algebra of Teichmüller modular forms on the space of non-hyperelliptic curves of genus \(3\). Under this isomorphism, the restriction of the form \(t^*\chi_{18}\) to the non-hyperelliptic locus can be interpreted as an invariant, and this provides a simple proof of a formula of Klein which asserts that \(\chi_{18}(\text{Jac}\,C,j)\) is the square of the discriminant of \(C\).

Recommendations

Cited in

(16)

This page was built for publication: Jacobians among Abel threefolds: a formula of Klein and a question of Serre

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2275697)