Jacobians with a vanishing theta-null in genus 4

For a curve of genus at least four which is either very general or very general hyperelliptic, we classify all ways in which a power of its Jacobian can be isogenous to a product of Jacobians of curves. As an application, we show that, for a very general principally polarized abelian variety of dimension at least four, or the intermediate Jacobian of a very general cubic threefold, no power is isogenous to a product of Jacobians of curves. This confirms some cases of the Cole...

We give completely algebro-geometric proofs of a theorem by T. Shiota, and of a theorem by I. Krichever, characterizing Jacobians of algebraic curves among all irreducible principally polarized abelian varieties. Shiota's characterization is given in terms of the KP equation. Krichever's characterization is given in terms of trisecant lines to the Kummer variety. Here we treat the case of flexes and degenerate trisecants. The basic tool we use is a theorem we prove asserting ...

Let A be a principally polarized abelian threefold over a perfect field k, not isomorphic to a product over the algebraic closure of k. There exists a canonical extension k' of k, of degree 1 or 2, such that A becomes isomorphic to a Jacobian over k'. The aim of this note is to give a geometric construction of this extension.

We give a practical method to compute the 2-torsion subgroup of the Jacobian of a non-hyperelliptic curve of genus $3$, $4$ or $5$. The method is based on the correspondence between the 2-torsion subgroup and the theta hyperplanes to the curve. The correspondence is used to explicitly write down a zero-dimensional scheme whose points correspond to elements of the $2$-torsion subgroup. Using $p$-adic or complex approximations (obtained via Hensel lifting or homotopy continuati...

We prove the following converse of Riemann's Theorem: let (A,\Theta) be an indecomposable principally polarized abelian variety whose theta divisor can be written as a sum of a curve and a codimension two subvariety \Theta=C+Y. Then C is smooth, A is the Jacobian of C, and Y is a translate of W_{g-2}(C). As applications, we determine all theta divisors that are dominated by a product of curves and characterize Jacobians by the existence of a d-dimensional subvariety with curv...

In an earlier paper we constructed a Cartier divisor on the theta divisor of a principally polarised abelian variety whose support is precisely the ramification locus of the Gauss map. In this note we discuss a Green's function associated to this locus. For jacobians we relate this Green's function to the canonical Green's function of the corresponding Riemann surface.

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...

We give an explicit characterization of all principally polarized abelian varieties $(A,\Theta)$ such that there is a finite subgroup of automorphisms $G$ of $A$ that preserve the numerical class of $\Theta$, and such that the quotient variety $A/G$ is smooth. We also give a complete classification of smooth quotients of Jacobians of curves.

We show that the degree of the images of the moduli space of (principally polarized) abelian varieties A_g and of the moduli space of curves M_g in the projective space under the theta constant embedding are equal to the top self-intersection numbers of one half the first Hodge class on them. This allows us to obtain an explicit formula for the degree of A_g, and an explicit upper bound for the degree of M_g. Knowing the degree of A_g allows us to effectively determine the ...

The primitive cohomology of the theta divisor of a principally polarized abelian variety of dimension $g$ is a Hodge structure of level $g-3$. The Hodge conjecture predicts that it is contained in the image, under the Abel-Jacobi map, of the cohomology of a family of curves in the theta divisor. We survey some of the results known about this primitive cohomology, prove a few general facts and mention some interesting open problems.