arXiv subjects

Alina Bucur

Publications and source records attributed to Alina Bucur.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Products of point counts of higher genus curves over finite fields

Let $E/\mathbb Q$ be an elliptic curve and for each prime $p$, let $N_p$ denote the number of points of $E$ modulo $p$. The original version of the conjecture of Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer asserts that $\prod \limits _{p \leq x} \frac{N_p}{p} \sim C (\log x) ^{\text{rank}(E(\mathbb Q))}$ as $x \to \infty$. In this paper, we formulate a similar conjectural asymptotic for smooth projective curves of genus at least 2, in which the contributions to the conjectured asymptotic come not only from the rank of the Jacobian but also from the Sato--Tate group of the curve. The key analytic input in formulating our conjecture is a conjecture due to Kurokawa (2012) on the convergence of Euler products of entire $L$-functions on the critical line. We also provide some numerical evidence for our conjecture in various cases.

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arXiv2026

Counting number fields using multiple Dirichlet series

We provide a method for counting number fields of fixed Galois group ordered by arbitrary inertial invariants using analytic techniques from the study of multiple Dirichlet series. We prove unconditional results for infinitely many new (concentrated and semiconcentrated) groups that were not approachable by previous methods. Conditional on subconvexity bounds bounds for certain Dirichlet series (e.g. the generalized Lindel\"of hypothesis), we use these techniques to prove the existence of an asymptotic growth rate for $G$-extensions for infinitely many new groups $G$ for which the minimum index elements of $G$ are contained in a union of proper abelian normal subgroups. In particular, our conditional results include all groups with nilpotency class $2$. Additionally, when $G$ is nilpotent our results give a power saving error term.

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arXiv2023

Frobenius sign separation for abelian varieties

Let A and A' be nonzero abelian varieties defined over a number field k such that Hom(A,A')=0. Under the Generalized Riemann hypothesis for motivic L-functions attached to A and A', we show that there exists a prime p of k of good reduction for A and A' at which the Frobenius traces of A and A' are nonzero and differ by sign, and such that the norm of p is O_{k,g,g'}(log(2NN')^2), where N and N' respectively denote the absolute conductors of A and A'. We also make the dependence of the big-O constant on k and the dimensions g,g' of A,A' explicit up to an effectively computable absolute constant. Our method extends that of Chen, Park, and Swaminathan who considered the case in which A and A' are elliptic curves.

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arXiv2023

Effective Sato-Tate conjecture for abelian varieties and applications

From the generalized Riemann hypothesis for motivic L-functions, we derive an effective version of the Sato-Tate conjecture for an abelian variety A defined over a number field k with connected Sato-Tate group. By effective we mean that we give an upper bound on the error term in the count predicted by the Sato-Tate measure that only depends on certain invariants of A. We discuss three applications of this conditional result. First, for an abelian variety defined over k, we consider a variant of Linnik's problem for abelian varieties that asks for an upper bound on the least norm of a prime whose normalized Frobenius trace lies in a given interval. Second, for an elliptic curve defined over k with complex multiplication, we determine (up to multiplication by a nonzero constant) the asymptotic number of primes whose Frobenius trace attain the integral part of the Hasse-Weil bound. Third, for a pair of abelian varieties defined over k with no common factors up to k-isogeny, we find an upper bound on the least norm of a prime at which the respective Frobenius traces have opposite sign.

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arXiv2022

Power-saving error terms for the number of $D_4$-quartic extensions over a number field ordered by discriminant

We study the asymptotic count of dihedral quartic extensions over a fixed number field with bounded norm of the relative discriminant. The main term of this count (including a summation formula for the constant) can be found in the literature (see Cohen--Diaz y Diaz--Olivier for the statement without proof and see Klüners for a proof), but a power-saving for the error term has not been explicitly determined except in the case that the base field is $\mathbb{Q}$. In this article, we describe the argument for obtaining both the explicit main term and a power-saving error term for the number of $D_4$-quartic extensions over a general base number field ordered by the norms of their relative discriminants. We also give an extensive overview of the history and development of number field asymptotics.

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arXiv2022

Geometric generalizations of the square sieve, with an application to cyclic covers

We formulate a general problem: given projective schemes $\mathbb{Y}$ and $\mathbb{X}$ over a global field $K$ and a $K$-morphism $η$ from $\mathbb{Y}$ to $\mathbb{X}$ of finite degree, how many points in $\mathbb{X}(K)$ of height at most $B$ have a pre-image under $η$ in $\mathbb{Y}(K)$? This problem is inspired by a well-known conjecture of Serre on quantitative upper bounds for the number of points of bounded height on an irreducible projective variety defined over a number field. We give a non-trivial answer to the general problem when $K=\mathbb{F}_q(T)$ and $\mathbb{Y}$ is a prime degree cyclic cover of $\mathbb{X}=\mathbb{P}_{K}^n$. Our tool is a new geometric sieve, which generalizes the polynomial sieve to a geometric setting over global function fields.

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arXiv2016

Traces, high powers and one level density for families of curves over finite fields

The zeta function of a curve $C$ over a finite field may be expressed in terms of the characteristic polynomial of a unitary matrix $\Theta_C$. We develop and present a new technique to compute the expected value of $\mathrm{Tr}(\Theta_C^n)$ for various moduli spaces of curves of genus $g$ over a fixed finite field in the limit as $g$ is large, generalizing and extending the work of Rudnick and Chinis. This is achieved by using function field zeta functions, explicit formulae, and the densities of prime polynomials with prescribed ramification types at certain places as given by Bucur, David, Feigon, Kaplan, Lal\'in and Wood [BDF$^+$16] and by Zhao. We extend [BDF$^+$16] by describing explicit dependence on the place and give an explicit proof of the Lindel\"{o}f bound for function field Dirichlet $L$-functions $L(1/2 + it, \chi)$. As applications, we compute the one-level density for hyperelliptic curves, cyclic $\ell$-covers, and cubic non-Galois covers.

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arXiv2015

Statistics for biquadratic covers of the projective line over finite fields

We study the distribution of the traces of the Frobenius endomorphism of genus $g$ curves which are quartic non-cyclic covers of $\mathbb{P}^{1}_{\mathbb{F}_{q}}$, as the curve varies in an irreducible component of the moduli space. We show that for $q$ fixed, the limiting distribution of the trace of Frobenius equals the sum of $q + 1$ independent random discrete variables. We also show that when both $g$ and $q$ go to infinity, the normalized trace has a standard complex Gaussian distribution. Finally, we extend these computations to the general case of arbitrary covers of $\mathbb{P}^{1}_{\mathbb{F}_{q}}$ with Galois group isomorphic to $r$ copies of $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$. For $r = 1$, we recover the already known hyperelliptic case. We also include an appendix by Alina Bucur giving the heuristic of these distributions.

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arXiv2015

An application of the effective Sato-Tate conjecture

Based on the Lagarias-Odlyzko effectivization of the Chebotarev density theorem, Kumar Murty gave an effective version of the Sato-Tate conjecture for an elliptic curve conditional on analytic continuation and Riemann hypothesis for the symmetric power $L$-functions. We use Murty's analysis to give a similar conditional effectivization of the generalized Sato-Tate conjecture for an arbitrary motive. As an application, we give a conditional upper bound of the form $O((\log N)^2 (\log \log 2N)^2)$ for the smallest prime at which two given rational elliptic curves with conductor at most $N$ have Frobenius traces of opposite sign.

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arXiv2015

The distribution of $\mathbb{F}_q$-points on cyclic $\ell$-covers of genus $g$

We study fluctuations in the number of points of $\ell$-cyclic covers of the projective line over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ when $q \equiv 1 \mod \ell$ is fixed and the genus tends to infinity. The distribution is given as a sum of $q+1$ i.i.d. random variables. This was settled for hyperelliptic curves by Kurlberg and Rudnick, while statistics were obtained for certain components of the moduli space of $\ell$-cyclic covers by Bucur, David, Feigon and Lalín. In this paper, we obtain statistics for the distribution of the number of points as the covers vary over the full moduli space of $\ell$-cyclic covers of genus $g$. This is achieved by relating $\ell$-covers to cyclic function field extensions, and counting such extensions with prescribed ramification and splitting conditions at a finite number of primes.

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arXiv2013

Statistics for ordinary Artin-Schreier covers and other $p$-rank strata

We study the distribution of the number of points and of the zeroes of the zeta function in different $p$-rank strata of Artin-Schreier covers over $\F_q$ when $q$ is fixed and the genus goes to infinity. The $p$-rank strata considered include the ordinary family, the whole family, and the family of curves with $p$-rank equal to $p-1.$ While the zeta zeroes always approach the standard Gaussian distribution, the number of points over $\F_q$ has a distribution that varies with the specific family.

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arXiv2012

Distribution of zeta zeroes of Artin--Schreier curves

We study the distribution of the zeroes of the zeta functions of the family of Artin-Schreier covers of the projective line over $\mathbb{F}_q$ when $q$ is fixed and the genus goes to infinity. We consider both the global and the mesoscopic regimes, proving that when the genus goes to infinity, the number of zeroes with angles in a prescribed non-trivial subinterval of $[-π,π)$ has a standard Gaussian distribution (when properly normalized).

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arXiv2012

The probability that a complete intersection is smooth

Given a smooth subscheme of a projective space over a finite field, we compute the probability that its intersection with a fixed number of hypersurface sections of large degree is smooth of the expected dimension. This generalizes the case of a single hypersurface, due to Poonen. We use this result to give a probabilistic model for the number of rational points of such a complete intersection. A somewhat surprising corollary is that the number of rational points on a random smooth intersection of two surfaces in projective 3-space is strictly less than the number of points on the projective line.

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arXiv2009

The fluctuations in the number of points of smooth plane curves over finite fields

In this note, we study the fluctuations in the number of points of smooth projective plane curves over finite fields $\mathbb{F}_q$ as $q$ is fixed and the genus varies. More precisely, we show that these fluctuations are predicted by a natural probabilistic model, in which the points of the projective plane impose independent conditions on the curve. The main tool we use is a geometric sieving process introduced by Poonen.

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arXiv2009

Statistics for traces of cyclic trigonal curves over finite fields

We study the variation of the trace of the Frobenius endomorphism associated to a cyclic trigonal curve of genus g over a field of q elements as the curve varies in an irreducible component of the moduli space. We show that for q fixed and g increasing, the limiting distribution of the trace of the Frobenius equals the sum of q+1 independent random variables taking the value 0 with probability 2/(q+2) and 1, e^{(2pi i)/3}, e^{(4pi i)/3} each with probability q/(3(q+2)). This extends the work of Kurlberg and Rudnick who considered the same limit for hyperelliptic curves. We also show that when both g and q go to infinity, the normalized trace has a standard complex Gaussian distribution and how to generalize these results to p-fold covers of the projective line.

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