arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jean Gillibert.
We give upper and lower bounds on the Chevalley-Bass number of a field of characteristic zero, whenever this quantity is well-defined. We also describe an algorithm which computes the Chevalley-Bass number of a field, provided its maximal abelian subextension is known. As a primary application, we improve the value of a constant related to exponential diophantine equations.
Combining $2$-descent techniques with Riemann-Roch and Bézout's theorems, we give an upper bound on the number of rational points of bounded height on elliptic and hyperelliptic curves over function fields of characteristic $\neq 2$. We deduce an upper bound on the number of $S$-integral points, where $S$ is a finite set of places. As a primary application, over small finite fields we bound the $3$-torsion of Jacobians of hyperelliptic curves and the $2$-torsion of Jacobians of trigonal curves. In this setting, these bounds improve on both the trivial geometric bound and the naive inequality coming from the Weil bound, as well as recent upper bounds on $2$-torsion in the work of Bhargava et al.
It follows from the Grothendieck-Ogg-Shafarevich formula that the rank of an abelian variety (with trivial trace) defined over the function field of a curve is bounded by a quantity which depends on the genus of the base curve and on bad reduction data. Using a function field version of classical $\ell$-descent techniques, we derive an arithmetic refinement of this bound, extending previous work of the second and third authors from elliptic curves to abelian varieties, and improving on their result in the case of elliptic curves. When the abelian variety is the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve, we produce a more explicit $2$-descent map. Then we apply this machinery to studying points on the Jacobians of certain genus $2$ curves over $k(t)$, where $k$ is some perfect base field of characteristic not $2$.
We study the vanishing of triple Massey products for absolutely irreducible smooth projective curves over a number field. For each genus $g > 1$ and each prime $\ell > 3$, we construct examples of hyperelliptic curves of genus $g$ for which there are non-empty triple Massey products with coefficients in $\mathbb{Z}/\ell$ that do not contain $0$.
We consider elliptic curves defined by an equation of the form $y^2=x^3+f(t)$, where $f\in k[t]$ has coefficients in a perfect field $k$ of characteristic not $2$ or $3$. By performing $2$ and $3$-descent, we obtain, under suitable assumptions on the factorization of $f$, bounds for the number of integral points on these curves. These bounds improve on a general result by Hindry and Silverman. When $f$ has degree at most $6$, we give exact expressions for the number of integral points of small height in terms of certain subgroups of Picard groups of the $k$-curves corresponding to the $2$ and $3$-torsion of our curve. This allows us to recover explicit results by Bremner, and gives new insight into Pillai's equation.
We compare tame actions in the category of schemes with torsors in the category of log schemes endowed with the log flat topology. We prove that actions underlying log flat torsors are tame. Conversely, starting from a tame cover of a regular scheme that is an fppf torsor on the complement of a divisor with normal crossings, it is possible to build a unique log flat torsor that dominates this cover. In brief, the theory of log flat torsors gives a canonical approach to the problem of extending torsors into tame covers.
We study the vanishing of Massey products of order at least $3$ for absolutely irreducible smooth projective curves over a perfect field with coefficients in $\mathbb{Z}/\ell$. We mainly focus on elliptic curves, for which we obtain a complete characterization of when triple Massey products do not vanish.
For each finite subgroup $G$ of $PGL_2(\mathbb{Q})$, and for each integer $n$ coprime to $6$, we construct explicitly infinitely many Galois extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ with group $G$ and whose ideal class group has $n$-rank at least $\#G-1$. This gives new $n$-rank records for class groups of number fields.
We introduce the use of $p$-descent techniques for elliptic surfaces over a perfect field of characteristic not $2$ or $3$. Under mild hypotheses, we obtain an upper bound for the rank of a non-constant elliptic surface. When $p=2$, this bound is an arithmetic refinement of a well-known geometric bound for the rank deduced from Igusa's inequality. This answers a question raised by Ulmer. We give some applications to rank bounds for elliptic surfaces over the rational numbers.
We construct étale generalized Heisenberg group covers of hyperelliptic curves over number fields. We use these to produce infinite families of quadratic extensions of cyclotomic fields that admit everywhere unramified generalized Heisenberg Galois extensions.
Let $C$ be a hyperelliptic curve defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, whose Weierstrass points are defined over extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ of degree at most three, and at least one of them is rational. Generalizing a result of R. Soleng (in the case of elliptic curves), we prove that any line bundle of degree $0$ on $C$ which is not torsion can be specialised into ideal classes of imaginary quadratic fields whose order can be made arbitrarily large. This gives a positive answer, for such curves, to a question by Agboola and Pappas.
The purpose of this note is twofold. First, we survey results on the construction of large class groups of number fields by specialization of finite covers of curves. Then we give examples of applications of these techniques.
Given a non-isotrivial elliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}(t)$ with large Mordell-Weil rank, we explain how one can build, for suitable small primes $p$, infinitely many fields of degree $p^2-1$ whose ideal class group has a large $p$-torsion subgroup. As an example, we show the existence of infinitely many cubic fields whose ideal class group contains a subgroup isomorphic to $(\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})^{11}$.
We give a positive answer to a Conjecture by Manjul Bhargava, Daniel M. Kane, Hendrik W. Lenstra Jr., Bjorn Poonen and Eric Rains, concerning the cohomology of torsion subgroups of elliptic curves over global fields. This implies that, given a global field $k$ and an integer $n$, for $100\%$ of elliptic curves $E$ defined over $k$, the $n$-th Selmer group of $E$ is the intersection of two direct summands of the adelic cohomology group $H^1(\mathbf{A},E[n])$. We also give examples of elliptic curves for which the conclusion of this conjecture does not hold.
We prove the splitting of the Kummer exact sequence and related exact sequences in arithmetic geometry.
We prove, under some mild hypothesis, that an étale cover of curves defined over a number field has infinitely many specializations into an everywhere unramified extension of number fields. This constitutes an "absolute" version of the Chevalley-Weil theorem. Using this result, we are able to generalize the techniques of Mestre, Levin and the second author for constructing and counting number fields with large class group.
Let X be a projective curve over Q and t a non-constant Q-rational function on X of degree n>1. For every integer a pick a points P(a) on X such that t(P(a))=a. Dvornicich and Zannier (1994) proved that for large N the field Q(P(1), ..., P(N)) is of degree at least exp(cN/log N) over Q, where c>0 depends only on X and t. In this note we extend this result, replacing Q by an arbitrary number field.
The class-invariant homomorphism allows one to measure the Galois module structure of extensions obtained by dividing points on abelian varieties. In this paper, we consider the case when the abelian variety is the Jacobian of a Fermat curve. We give examples of torsion points whose associated Galois structure is trivial, as well as points of infinite order whose associated Galois structure is non-trivial.