Projective p-adic Representations of the K-rational
Geometric Fundamental Group
G. Frey and E. Kani
Herrn E. Lamprecht zum 75. Geburtstag gewidmet

1

Introduction

Let C/K be a smooth, geometrically connected curve over a finitely generated field K,
and let F = κ(C) denote its function field. If C has a K-rational point P ∈ C(K), thenthe K-rational fundamental group π1 (C, P ) of C/K with base point P is the Galois group
π1 (C, P ) = Gal(Fnr,P /F )of the maximal unramified extension Fnr,P of F in which P splits completely. Since theextension Fnr,P /F is regular, it is clear that π1 (C, P ) is a quotient of the usual geometricfundamental group π1 (CK̄ , P ) of CK̄ = C ⊗ K̄ over the algebraic closure K̄ of K withbase point P .
The group π1 (C, P ), which is a special case of the groups Gal(FSur /F ) introduced by
Ihara [Ih], was studied in some detail in [FKV]. It may be viewed as a natural analogueof the fundamental group π1 (F ) of a number field F , as the results of section 2 of [FKV]abof Fnr,P , which may be
indicate. For example, the maximal abelian subextension Fnr,Pinterpreted as an analogue of the Hilbert class field (cf. Rosen [Ro]), is always finite.
However, this picture changes if we look at p-adic representations if K has positive
characteristic, particularly in view of the following consequence of Fontaine-Mazur Conjecture [FM]:Conjecture 1 ([FM], Conjecture 5b) If F is a number field, then any p-adic representationρ : π1 (F ) → GLn (Qp )factors through a finite quotient group. In particular, any quotient group of the maximal
unramified pro-p-group π1 (F )(p) , which is a p-adic analytic group, is finite.

1

Now the natural analogue of this conjecture for the group π1 (C, P ) is false if K has
positive characteristic. This can be deduced from the work of Oort[Oo1] (as will be
explained in section 4), but this approach does not lead to explicit counterexamples. We
therefore present here the following result:
Theorem 1.1 Suppose K is a field of characteristic char(K) ≡ 3 (mod 4) and that K
2contains the fourth roots of unity. Let b ∈ K × , b4 6= ±1, and put c = 1 + b4 and a = 2bc .
Let C/K be the curve defined by the equation
s4 = ct(t2 − 1)(t − a)g(t),where g(t) ∈ K[t] is any polynomial withg(a) = 1 andg(0)g(1)g(−1) 6= 0,

and put P = (a, 0) ∈ C(K). Then the K-rational geometric fundamental group π1 (C, P )is infinite; more precisely, for every prime p ≡ 5 (mod 12) (with p 6= char(K)), the group
PSL3 (Zp ) is a factor of π1 (C, P ), i.e. there is a surjectionρ̃ : π1 (C, P ) → PSL3 (Zp ).
Corollary 1.2 In the above situation, let Cp denote the finite cover of C of degree p + 1
corresponding to a pro-p-Sylow subgroup Up of PSL3 (Zp ). Then for any point P 0 overP , the fundamental group π1 (Cp , P 0 ) has a quotient which is isomorphic to the p-adic
analytic group Up .
It should also be mentioned here that Ihara [Ih] has constructed other explicit counterexamples in the case that K is a finite field (of characteristic 3 or 5).
To construct such representations ρ̃, we shall actually follow the spirit of the Main
Conjecture of Fontaine-Mazur[FM] which asserts that all “reasonable” p-adic representations of GF come from geometry, i.e. they are subrepresentations of an étale cohomology
group H q (XF̄ , Qp (r)) attached to some algebraic variety X/F .
In our case we shall take X to be a curve and q = 1, which means that we areconsidering representations which are closely related to the Qp -Tate module Vp (A) :=Tp (A) ⊗ Qp of an abelian subvariety A/F of the Jacobian variety of X.
It is easily seen that the usual p-adic GF -subrepresentations V ⊂ Vp (A) do not lead torepresentations of π1 (C, P ) (cf. Proposition 2.2). We use instead the associated projective
representations
ρ̃V : GF → PGL(V ) = Aut(P(V )).
Since it seems difficult to find a useful (geometric) criterion that such a single representation ρ̃V factors over π1 (C, P ), we work instead with a complete system {ρ̃Vi } of
subrepresentations belonging to a GF -decomposition Vp (A) = ⊕Vi .
2

A first condition for the existence of such a system {ρ̃Vi } is given by the criterion ofNéron-Ogg-Shafarevich: A has to have good reduction everywhere, i.e. at all points of C.
A second condition is that the fixed fields of (finite quotients of) the kernels of theρ̃Vi ’s are regular extensions of F .
Note that by using group theoretical methods it not difficult to find examples ofabelian varieties A/F and corresponding representations {ρ̃Vi } which satisfy these two
conditions (cf. [FKV]).
The most difficult condition is the existence of a point P ∈ C(K) which splits completely in Fix(Ker(ρ̃Vi )). Of course this condition implies the second one but at present wehave no “canonical” method for constructing abelian varieties A/F which satisfy the first
and the third condition. (Actually, the “supersingular moduli constructions” discussed
in section 4 do give such a method, but this method does not apply in characteristic 0.)
The aim of this paper is to analyze the arithmetical conditions for A which are imposedby these conditions.
In the case that the Vi are the eigenspaces of a suitable automorphism σ ∈ Aut(A)(this situation occurs in the constructions of [FKV]), we give in Theorem 2.5 a complete characterization of the case when all the ρ̃Vi factor over π1 (C, P ): under suitable
hypotheses, this happens precisely when the reduction AP of A at P has complex multiplication and the centre Z(End0K (AP )) of the endomorphism algebra of AP is containedin the algebra Q(σ̄) ⊂ End0 (AP ) generated by the reduction σ̄ ∈ Aut(AP ) of σ. The
proof of this theorem is given in section 3.
In section 5 we apply this criterion to the example considered in the last section of[FKV]. Under the assumption that K contains the fourth roots of unity we obtain athree dimensional subvariety A of the Jacobian of a suitable curve of genus 4 and a point
P on C such that AP is (isogenous to) the product of three copies of the elliptic curveE:

Y 2 = X3 − X(which has complex multiplication by Q(i)). However, when we compute the centre
Z(End0K (AP )) it turns out that it is not contained in Q(σ) unless E is supersingular!
Thus, we have to correct the statement of Theorem 5.22 of [FKV] by adding the condition
that char(K) ≡ 3 (mod 4). It remains open whether there is a curve over a number field
for which the analogue of Conjecture 1 is not true.
Acknowledgment: The authors gratefully acknowledge receipt of partial funding by boththe DFG (Forschergruppe and Graduiertenkolleg Essen) and the Natural Science andEngineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (through an operating grant held by
the second author) which made this joint research possible.

3

2

Projective p-adic Representations

As was mentioned in the introduction, we shall construct p-adic representations of the
K-rational geometric fundamental group π1 (C, P ) by making use of the p-adic Galois
representation
ρA,p : GF = Gal(F sep /F ) → GL(Vp (A)) ' GL2d (Qp )induced by the natural action of GF on the Qp -Tate module Vp (A) := Tp (A) ⊗ Qp of asuitable abelian variety A/F . (We shall always assume tacitly that p 6= char(F ).)Since we want this representation to factor over π1 (C, P ), the extension[
F (Vp (A)) := (F sep )Ker(ρA,p ) =F (A[pn ])nof all pn -th torsion points has to lie in Fnr,P and hence in particular has to be unramified
everywhere. Now by the criterion of Néron-Ogg-Shafarevich (cf. [ST] or [FKV]) this lattercondition is equivalent toAssumption 2.1 A has good reduction everywhere over C.
Assuming this, we thus see that F (Vp (A)) ⊂ Fnr,P if and only if P splits completely
in F (Vp (A)), i.e. in each F (A[pn ]), for all n ≥ 1. Now this in fact can never happen,
for otherwise all the pn -torsion points of the reduction AP would be K-rational, which
is impossible since AP (K) is finitely generated by the Theorem of Mordell-Weil-NéronLang.
Moreover, a similar conclusion holds for any subrepresentation ρV : GF → GL(V )associated to a (non-zero) Qp [GF ]-submodule V ⊂ Vp (A). Indeed, if we let[
F (V ) := (F sep )Ker(ρV ) =F (M/pn M ), where M = Tp (A) ∩ V,
then the same argument shows that F (V ) cannot lie in Fnr,P , and hence we have
Proposition 2.2 No non-trivial p-adic subrepresentation of ρA,p factors over π1 (C, P ).
Thus, none of the representations ρV induces a representation of π1 (C, P ). However,
if we replace ρV by its associated projective representationρ̃V : GF → PGL(V ) = Aut(P(V )),then it turns out in some cases that ρ̃V does factor over π1 (C, P ), or equivalently, thatP splits completely in the subfield
F (P(V )) := F (V )Z(GL(V )) ⊂ F (V )4consisting of those elements of F (V ) which are fixed by all the Galois automorphisms
lying in the centre Z(GL(V )) of GL(V ).
For our purposes it is useful to characterize this splitting property in terms of the
Galois action on the Tate module of the reduction AP /K of A at P . For this, let
V ⊂ Tp (AP ) denote the image of V under the natural identification Vp (A) ' Vp (AP )induced by the reduction map; clearly V is a Qp [GK ]-module. Then we have
Proposition 2.3 The projective p-adic representation ρ̃V : GF → PGL(V ) factors over
π1 (C, P ) if and only if GK acts centrally on V , i.e. if for every g ∈ GK we have(1)ρV (g) = cg idV ,for some cg ∈ Q×p.

Proof. By the discussion above, ρ̃V factors over π1 (C, P ) if and only if P splits completely
in each F (P(Mn )), for n ≥ 1, where Mn = M/pn M ≤ A[pn ] and M = V ∩ Tp (A). Now
by the first part of Corollary 5.11 of [FKV] this holds if and only if K(P(M n )) = K ⇔every σ ∈ Gal(K(M n )/K) acts centrally on M n ⇔ every σ ∈ GK acts centrally on M n ,and so the assertion follows.
Remark 2.4 Note that condition (1) holds (for any V ) in the case that the reduction
AP /K of A/F at P is K-isogenous to a power of a supersingular elliptic curve E/K(with all endomorphisms defined over K), i.e. AP ∼ E g and dimQ End0K (E) = 4.
Indeed, in this case we have End0K (AP ) ⊗ Qp = EndQp (Vp (A)) ' M2g (Qp ), and soIm(ρAP ,p ) ⊂ CVp (A) (End0K (AP )) = Z(Vp (A)) = Qp , which means that (1) holds.
In fact, as we shall see below, the above situation is the only case for which condition(1) holds for the full Tate module Vp (A); cf. Corollary 2.6 below.
In order to be able to use the result of Proposition 2.3 for the construction of suitableprojective representations, we need to translate condition (1) into a geometric propertyof the reduction AP . This seems to be difficult for a single subrepresentation ρ̃V of ρ̃A,p ,but if we consider instead a complete collection {ρ̃Vi } of subrepresentations attached toa Qp [GF ]-decompositionr
M(2)
Vp (A) =Vi ,i=1

then such a translation is possible, particularly if we assume that the decomposition is
obtained as the eigenspace decomposition of an automorphism σ ∈ Aut(A).
Indeed, if condition (1) holds for each V i , then it follows in particular that GK acts
diagonally on Vp (AP ), and this imposes a very strong restriction on the abelian variety
AP /K, for it implies (as we shall see below) that AP /K has complex multiplication (CM)in the sense that for every K-simple abelian subvariety B ≤ AP we have(3)

dimQ End0K (B) = 4e (dim B)2 ,5

where e = [Z(End0K (B)) : Q]; cf. Mumford [Mu2], p. 183. (Note that this condition isequivalent to existence of a subfield L ⊂ End0K (B) of degree [L : Q] = 2 dim B, which isthe definition used in Serre-Tate [ST].)
Conversely, if AP has CM (and if Qp splits End0K (AP )), then GK acts diagonally (cf.
Proposition 3.1), although not necessarily via the given decomposition. However, if (2)is the eigenspace decomposition of an automorphism σ ∈ Aut(A), then we can give acomplete characterization:
Theorem 2.5 Let A/F be an abelian variety with good reduction everywhere, and suppose that A has an automorphism σ ∈ Aut(A) of order N such that for some prime1
p ≡ 1 (mod N ) the eigenspace decomposition of Vp (A) with respect to σ has the form
M
(4)
Vp (A) =Vi ,(i,N )=1

where Vi = Vp (A)λi = {v ∈ Vp (A) : σv = λ(σ)i v} denotes the i-th eigenspace with respect
to a fixed character λ : hσi → Q×p of order N . In addition, assume that all these spaces
have the same dimension
dimQp Vi = n.
(5)
Then each projective p-adic subrepresentation ρ̃A,λi := ρ̃Vi : GF → PGL(Vi ) of ρ̃A,p factors
over π1 (C, P ), i.e. ρ̃A,λi induces a homomorphismρ̃Vi : π1 (C, P ) → PGL(Vi ),for all i with (i, N ) = 1,

if and only if the reduction AP has complex multiplication and if the algebra Q(σ̄) ⊂E := End0K (AP ) generated by the reduction σ̄ of σ contains the centre Z(E) of E, i.e. ifQ(σ̄) ⊃ Z(E).
Before proving this theorem in the next section, let us observe here that it also gives acomplete answer to the question of when the “full” projective representation ρ̃A,p factors
over π1 (C, P ). In particular, we see that ρ̃A,p never factors over π1 (C, P ) if char(F ) = 0.
Corollary 2.6 The projective representation ρ̃A,p factors over π1 (C, P ) if and only the
reduction AP is K-isogenous to a power of a supersingular elliptic curve E/K (with all
endomorphisms defined over K).
Proof. If the reduction AP satisfies these conditions, then by Remark 2.4 we know thatρ̃A,p factors over π1 (C, P ). Conversely, if the latter condition holds, then by Theorem 2.5(with σ = idA ) we conclude that AP has CM with centre Z(E) = Q. Thus AP ' B r ,1

Note that if (4) holds for one prime, then it holds for all primes p ≡ 1 (N ) by [FKV], Corollary 5.4.

6for some K-simple abelian variety B with CM. Since the centre of D = End0K (B) is
Z(D) = Q, it follows from the classification theory (cf. [Mu2], p. 201) that either D = Q
or that D is a quaternion algebra over Q. But since B has CM, equation (3) shows that
this is only possible in the second case, and then dim B = 1. But this means that B is asupersingular elliptic curve (with all endomorphisms defined over K); cf. [Mu2], p. 217.

3

The Splitting Condition

We now analyze the meaning of the splitting condition (1) in terms of geometric propertiesof the reduction AP , particularly in the case that we have a decomposition (4), andthereby prove Theorem 2.5. Since this analysis only involves the reduction AP /K (andnot A/F ), we shall simplify the notation here by writing A in place of AP .
Thus, let A/K be an abelian variety over a finitely generated field K, and supposethat its Qp -Tate module Vp (A) has a Qp [GK ]-decomposition(6)

Vp (A) =

r
M

Vi .

i=1

The aim here is to find necessary and sufficient conditions such that GK acts centrally
on each Vi ; cf. (1). Since this condition is equivalent to requiring that Vi be contained inthe χi -eigenspace
Vp (A)χi = {v ∈ Vp (A) : v g = χi (g)v, for all g ∈ GK }for some character χi ∈ Hom(GK , Qp ), we see that this condition implies in particularthat GK acts diagonally on Vp (A), i.e. we haveM
(7)
Vp (A) =Vp (A)χ .
χ∈Hom(GK ,Qp )This latter condition can be characterized geometrically as follows.
Proposition 3.1 Let A/K be an abelian variety over a finitely generated field K, andlet p 6= char(K) be a prime. Then GK acts diagonally on Vp (A) if and only if A/K has
CM and E := End0K (A) is split by Qp , i.e. E ⊗ Qp is a direct sum of matrix rings overQp .
Proof. Since K is finitely generated, we have(8)

Ep := E ⊗ Qp = EndGK (Vp (A))
7

by the Tate Conjecture for abelian varieties which was proved by Faltings [Fa]; cf. also
Schappacher [Sch].
Let us suppose first that GK acts diagonally on V . Then by (8) and (7) we have
(9)

(7) M

Ep = EndGK (Vp (A)) 'Mnχ (Qp ),χwhere nχ = dimQp (Vp (A)χ ). Thus Qp splits E, and hence in particular, p splits completely
in the centre Z = Z(E), i.e. Zp ' Qp , for every prime p|p in (the ring of integers of) Z.
Suppose now for the moment that A is simple, so E is a skewfield (and hence issimple). In this case all the nχ 6= 0 are equal; in fact, we haven2χ = dimZ E,(10)

if nχ 6= 0;

Qhere Z = Z(E) denotes the centre of E. To see this, note that since E⊗Qp ' p|p E⊗Z Zp ,the E ⊗Z Zp are precisely the simple factors of Ep , and hence by (9) we have E ⊗Z Zp 'Mnχ (Qp ). Since Zp ' Qp , the assertion (10) follows by comparing dimensions.
Now from (10) (and (7)) it follows that 2 dim A = dimQp Vp (A) = ne, where n2 =dimZ E, and so by (9) we have(9)

dimQ E = dimQp Ep = n2 e = 4e (dim A)2 ,which means that (3) holds, i.e. that A has CM.
Now suppose that A/K is arbitrary abelian variety such that GK acts diagonally on
Vp (A). Then the same is true for every abelian subvariety B ≤ A, and so, if B is simple,
then the above argument shows that B has CM, which means that A has CM.
Conversely, suppose that E is split by Qp and that A ∼ B1 × . . . × Br has CM,
where each Bi is simple. Then by Serre-Tate [ST], Theorem 5, Corollary 2, the imageof GK in each Vp (Bi ) is abelian, and hence the same is true for the image of GK on
Vp (A) = Vp (B1 ) ⊕ . . . ⊕ Vp (Br ). Let Rp ⊂ End(Vp (A)) denote the Qp -algebra generated
by GK . Then by Faltings[Fa] Rp is semi-simple, so Rp ' K1 ⊕ . . . ⊕ Kt is a direct sum offields (with [Ki : Qp ] < ∞). Now if any Ki 6= Qp , then EndRp (Vp (A)) cannot be a sum of(8)

matrix rings over Qp , i.e. Ep = EndRp (Vp (A)) is not split, contrary to hypothesis. Thus
Rp ' Qep (for some e), and so all the characters of Rp are 1-dimensional, which meansthat Vp (A) has a decomposition of the form (7).
Remark 3.2 a) As the above proof shows, we can also characterize the validity of (7)by the fact that we have an isomorphism Rp ' Qep , for some e, where, as above, Rp ⊂End(Vp (A)) denotes the Qp -algebra generated by the image of GK .
b) A similar characterization of CM abelian varieties is given (without proof) in
Serre[Se2], (2.2.6).
8c) Note that if K is a finite field, then by Tate’s theorem every abelian variety A/K
has CM; cf. [Mu2], Theorem 3(b) on p. 256.
d) On the other hand, we observe that GK acts centrally on Vp (A) if and only A is Kisogenous to a power E g of a supersingular elliptic curve E/K all of whose endomorphisms
are defined over K. Indeed, one direction was proved in Remark 2.4 and the other in thecourse of the proof of Corollary 2.6. (If K is finite, then further characterizations of thiscondition can be found in [Mu2], Theorem 3(d) on p. 256.)
Let us now assume that A has an automorphism σ ∈ Aut(A) of order N and thatp ≡ 1 (mod N ). Then there exists a character λ : hσi → Q×p of order N , and so Vp (A)admits a decomposition Vp (A) = ⊕Vi into σ-eigenspaces Vi = Vp (A)λi . We assume that
this decomposition has the following form:M(11) Vp (A) =Vi , and n := dimQp Vi does not depend on i (for (i, N ) = 1).
(i,N )=1

Remark 3.3 The hypothesis (11) clearly implies that dimQp Vp (A) = φ(N )n and hence
we have dim A = 12 φ(N )n. In addition, it implies that(12)

dimQp EndQp [σ] (Vp (A)) = φ(N )n2 ,for Vi ' Win , where Wi is the 1-dimensional Qp [σ]-module affording the character λi .
Furthermore, we observe that the subalgebra Q(σ) ⊂ E = End0K (A) generated by
σ is isomorphic to the N -th cyclotomic field Q(ζN ). Indeed, Q := Q(σ) is a quotient
algebra of the group ring Q[σ] with the property that in the faithful Q ⊗ Qp -module V
precisely the irreducible components Wi with (i, N ) = 1 appear, and any such quotientis isomorphic to Q(ζN ).
For abelian varieties A/K satisfying property (11), we have the following geometriccharacterizations of the splitting condition (1):Theorem 3.4 If A/K and σ satisfy the above property (11), then the following conditions are equivalent:(i) GK acts centrally on each Vi .
(ii) Im(ρK ) ⊂ Qp (σ), where ρK : GK → Aut(Vp (A)) denotes the associated Galois
representation.
(iii) A has CM and Z(E) ⊂ Q(σ), where E = End0K (A).
(iv) The centralizer CE (Q(σ)) of Q(σ) in E has dimension dimQ CE (Q(σ)) = φ(N )n2 .
(v) EndQp (σ) (Vp (A)) ⊂ E ⊗ Qp .
9P
Proof. (i) ⇒ (ii): Since p ≡ 1 (mod N ), the idempotent εi := N1 k λ(σ k )i σ −k lies in
Qp (σ); clearly Vi = εi V . Thus, if g ∈ GK
P, then by hypothesis we have ρK (g)|Vi = cg,i idVi
for some cg,i ∈ Q×
,
and
hence
ρ
(g)
=
K
p
i cg,i εi ∈ Qp (σ), i.e. condition (ii) holds.
(ii) ⇒ (i): This is trivial, since by hypothesis (11) the automorphism σ and hence
also all x ∈ Qp (σ) act centrally on each Vi .

(ii) ⇒ (iii): The hypothesis (ii) implies in particular that GK acts diagonally on V ,and hence by Proposition 3.1 we see that A has CM. In addition, the hypothesis (ii)
implies that Rp := Qp [Im(ρK )] ⊂ Qp (σ). Now by Faltings’ results [Fa] we haveZ(Ep ) = Ep ∩ Rp ,

(13)
(8)

because Z(Ep ) = C(Ep ) ∩ Ep = C(C(Rp )) ∩ Ep = Rp ∩ Ep by the double centralizer
theorem Curtis-Reiner [CR], Theorem 59.6 (p. 405) or Exercise 26.1 (p. 178)). From this
we therefore obtain that Z(Ep ) ⊂ Rp ⊂ Qp (σ), and hence it follows that Z(E) ⊂ Q(σ).
(iii) ⇒ (iv): Since Q(σ) is a field (cf. Remark 3.3), so is Z(E), and hence E is a simple
algebra. This means that A ∼ B r , for some r, where B is K-simple. Thus E ' Mr (D),where D = End0K (B) is a skewfield with centre Z(D) ' Z(E). Thus, by Remark 3.3 we
have
(14)
r dim B = dim A = 21 φ(N )n;Furthermore, since B/K has CM by hypothesis, we have by (3) and (14) that
(15)

(3)

(14)

dimQ E = r2 dimQ D = 1e 4r2 (dim B)2 = 1e φ(N )2 n2 ,where as before e = [Z(D) : Q].
Now since E is a simple algebra and Q(σ) is a simple subalgebra containing the centre
Z = Z(E) ' Z(D), we have (cf. Huppert [Hu], p. 542) that
dimZ CE (Q(σ)) = dimZ E/ dimZ Q(σ) = 1e φ(N )n2 ,where the second equality follows from (15) (and from the fact that dimZ Q(σ) = [Q(σ) :Z] = φ(N )/e). Thus dimQ CE (Q(σ)) = e dimZ CE (Q(σ)) = φ(N )n2 , as desired.
(iv) ⇔ (v): By definition we have CE (Q(σ)) ⊗ Qp = EndQp (σ) (V ) ∩ Ep , where V =Vp (A), and so EndQp (σ) (V ) ⊂ Ep ⇔ dimQ (CE (Q(σ))) = dimQp EndQp (σ) (V ) = φ(N )n2 ,where the latter equality holds by (12).
(v) ⇒ (ii): Since EndQp (σ) (V ) = C(Qp (σ)) is the centralizer of Qp (σ) in EndQp (V )and Ep = C(Rp ) is that of Rp (cf. (8)), we see that hypothesis (v) implies that
C(C(Qp (σ))) ⊃ C(Ep ) = C(C(Rp )).
10

Now since Qp (σ) and Rp are both semi-simple, the double centralizer theorem (cf. [CR],loc. cit.) shows that C(C(Qp (σ))) = Qp (σ) and C(C(Rp )) = Rp , and so Rp ⊂ Qp (σ),
which means that (ii) holds.
Proof of Theorem 2.5. The GF -decomposition (1) of Vp (A) induces (via the reductionmap) a GK -decomposition (6) of the Qp -Tate module V = Vp (AP ) reduction AP . Clearly,
the image V i of the i-th σ-eigenspace Vi is the i-th σ̄-eigenspace of V , and so the hypotheses imply that condition (11) holds for AP /K and σ̄.
Now by the splitting condition (Proposition 2.2) we know that all the ρ̃A,λi factor
over π1 (C, P ) if and only if GK acts centrally on each V i , and by the equivalence (i) ⇔(iv) of Theorem 3.4 this happens if and only if AP /K has CM and Z(E) ⊂ Q(σ̄).

4Constructions via Moduli Spaces

Returning to the situation studied in section 2, we shall now use the geometry of themoduli spaces Ag,d and the results of Oort[Oo1] to construct (in every positive characteristic) examples of abelian varieties A/F = κ(C) whose projective p-adic representations
ρ̃A,p : GF → PGL(Vp (A)) factor over π1 (C, P ) (for suitable C and P ).
As is explained below, all such examples arise from the existence of suitable morphisms
f : C → Ag,d to the (coarse) moduli space Ag,d which classifies isomorphism classes ofpairs (A, λ) of g-dimensional abelian varieties A/K with a polarization λ : A → At of
degree d2 (cf. Mumford [Mu1] or Oort[Oo1]). To make this more precise, it is convenient
to introduce the following terminology:
Definition. As usual, a point x ∈ Ag,d (K) is called supersingular if the abelian variety A/K corresponding to x is supersingular (i.e. A is K-isogenous to a power of asupersingular elliptic curve E/K).
Furthermore, if (C, P ) is a pointed curve over K (i.e. C/K is a curve and P ∈ C(K)is a K-rational point), then a non-constant ss-morphism f : (C, P ) → Ag,d is a morphism
f : C → Ag,d such that (a) f (P ) is a supersingular point and (b) the generic point off (C) is not supersingular (over κ(C)).
Remark 4.1 In the above definition we could replace condition (b) by the (stronger)condition that some point x0 ∈ f (C) ⊂ Ag,d (K) is not supersingular; this follows froma result of Oort (and Grothendieck/Katz) that the set of supersingular points in Ag,dis closed (cf. Oort[Oo2], (2.4)). Other equivalent conditions can be derived from thefollowing proposition (which is required in the proof of Theorem 4.3 below).
Proposition 4.2 If A/F is an abelian variety over a finitely generated field F , then thefollowing conditions are equivalent:11(i) A ⊗ F (or A ⊗ F sep ) is not supersingular;(ii) for some (or for every) p 6= char(K), the image G̃F,p := Im(ρ̃A,p ) of the associatedprojective p-adic representation ρ̃A,p : GF → PGL(Vp (A)) is infinite;(iii) for some (or for every) p 6= char(K), the image G̃F,p contains an infinite pro-psubgroup of finite index.
Proof. (i) ⇒ (ii): If (for some p) the image Im(ρ̃A,p ) were finite, then there is a finite
separable extension F 0 /F such that the restriction ρ̃A⊗F 0 ,p of ρ̃A,p to GF 0 ≤ GF is trivial.
This means that GF 0 acts centrally on Vp (A), and so by Remark 3.2(d) we see that A⊗F 0
is supersingular, contradiction.
(ii) ⇒ (i): Suppose A ⊗ F is supersingular; then there is a finite extension F 0 /F
such that A ⊗ F 0 is F 0 -isogenous to a power of a supersingular elliptic curve E/F 0 withall endomorphisms defined over F 0 . Then by Remark 3.2(d) we see that (for each p 6=
0 ,p , wherechar(K)) the image G̃F 0 ,p of GF 0 is trivial, and hence the same is true for G̃Fsep
00
Fsep
is the separable closure of F in F 0 . Now GFsep≤ GF is a subgroup of finite index,
0 ,p = {1} is a subgroup of finite index in G̃F,p , i.e. G̃F,p is finite.
hence it follows that G̃Fsep(ii) ⇔ (iii) Since G̃F,p is an infinite compact p-adic Lie group, this equivalence
follows from standard facts of p-adic Lie groups (cf. [Bou], §III.7, particularly Th. 4
and Prop. 5, Cor.). Alternatively, we can deduce this directly here by observing that
Gal(F (A[p∞ ])/F (A[p2 )]) is always a pro-p-group of finite index in Gal(F (A[p∞ ])/F ).
As was suggested above, there is a close connection between non-constant ss-morphismsf : (C, p) → Ag,d and projective p-adic representations ρ̃A,p which factor over π1 (C, P );more precisely, we have
Theorem 4.3 Let K be a finitely generated field of positive characteristic and let C/K
be a (smooth, projective) curve with function field F and K-rational point P .
(a) If A/F is an abelian variety of dimension g with good reduction everywhere suchthat the projective p-adic representation ρ̃A,p factors over π1 (C, P ) and has infinite image,then there is a non-constant ss-morphism f : (C, P ) → Ag,d for some d ≥ 1.
(b) Conversely, if we have a non-constant ss-morphism f : (C, P ) → Ag,d , then there
is a finite extension K 0 /K, a finite cover ϕ : C 0 → C ⊗ K 0 with ϕ−1 (P ) ⊂ C 0 (K 0 ), andan abelian variety A/F 0 = κ(C 0 ) with good reduction everywhere such that the associatedprojective p-adic representation ρ̃A,p has infinite image and factors over π(C 0 , P 0 ), for all
P 0 ∈ ϕ−1 (P ).
(c) For every g ≥ 3 and d ≥ 1 there exists a pointed curve (C, P ) (defined over somefinite extension K 0 /K) and a non-constant ss-morphism f : (C, P ) → Ag,d .
Proof. (a) Since A/F has good reduction everywhere, the Néron model A/C is an abelianscheme. Furthermore, since A/C is projective, there exists a polarization λ on A/C of12some degree d. Thus, by the modular interpretation of Ag,d , the pair (A, λ) gives rise toa unique morphism f : C → Ag,d . Since the projective p-adic representation ρ̃A,p factors
over π1 (C, P ), we know by Corollary 2.6 that the reduction AP is supersingular, and so(by the modular interpretation), f (P ) is a supersingular point. Furthermore, since theρ̃ has infinite image, we have by Proposition 4.2 that A ⊗ F is not supersingular; i.e.
the generic point of f (C) is not supersingular. Thus f is a non-constant ss-morphism as
desired.
(n)(b) Let Ag,d be the fine moduli space with level n-structure (where n ≥ 3 and(n)char(K) - n), and let pn : Ag,d → Ag,d be the associated (finite) covering map. Let
CK = C ⊗ K, and let C0 be an irreducible component of p−1
n (f (CK )) and let C1 be a0
component of the fibre product CK ×f,pn C0 . Thus, if ν : C → C1 is the desingularization of C1 , then C 0 is a smooth, projective curve over K which has surjective morphisms
ϕ : C 0 → CK and f 0 : C 0 → C0 such that πn ◦ f 0 = f ◦ ϕ, and there is a finite extension
K 0 /K such that C 0 and f 0 are defined over K 0 and such that all points P 0 ∈ ϕ−1 (P ) are
K 0 -rational.
(n)Since Ag,n is a fine moduli space, there exists a universal abelian scheme (with level(n)structure) Auniv /Ag,d , and so its pullback A = Auniv ×f 0 C 0 via f 0 is an abelian scheme
over C 0 or, equivalently, the generic fibre A = A⊗F 0 is an abelian variety over F 0 = κ(C 0 )of dimension g which has good reduction everywhere. Furthermore, since pn (f 0 (P 0 )) =f (P ) is supersingular for each P 0 ∈ ϕ−1 (P ), it follows from the modular interpretation(and by enlarging K 0 if necessary) that the reduction AP 0 of A at P 0 satisfies AP 0 ∼ E g ,for some supersingular elliptic curve E/K 0 with dim End0K (E) = 4. Thus, by the above
Remark 2.4 and Proposition 2.3 it follows that the projective p-adic representation ρ̃A,pfactors over π1 (C 0 , P 0 ). Furthermore, the image G̃F 0 ,p := Im(ρ̃A,p ) is infinite, for otherwise
A ⊗ F would be supersingular by Proposition 4.2, which contradicts the fact that f is a
non-constant ss-morphism.
(c) Let x ∈ Ag,d (K) be a supersingular point. Then x ∈ Wg,d , where (as in Oort
[Oo1]) Wg,d denotes the subset of points of Ag,d (K) of p-rank 0. Furthermore, since g ≥ 3,
there exists an abelian variety A/K which has p-rank 0 but which is not supersingular;
for example, one can choose A such that its formal group Â ∼ Gg−1,1 + G1,g−1 ; cf.
Lenstra/Oort [LO]. (Such an A has p-rank 0 since G1,0 does not occur as an isogeny
factor of Â (cf. Manin [Ma], Th. 2) but is not supersingular since Â 6∼ gG1,1 ; cf. [Oo1],
Th. 4.2.) Furthermore, by replacing A by an isogenous abelian variety if necessary, we
may assume that A has a polarization λ of degree d2 , and so (A, λ) corresponds to apoint x0 ∈ Wg,d ⊂ Ag,d (K). By the proof of Theorem (1.1) of [Oo1] (cf. p. 96ff), Wg,d isa projective subvariety of Ag,d of dimension dim Wg,d ≥ 12 g(g − 1) ≥ 1, so there exists a
projective irreducible curve C0 ⊂ Wg,d through x and x0 (cf. [Mu2], p. 56). Let f : C → C0
denote the normalization/desingularization of C0 /K; then f and C are defined over someextension field K 0 /K; by construction, f : C → C0 ⊂ Ag,d is a non-constant ss-morphism.
13

(Note that the generic point of f (C) = C0 cannot be supersingular, for otherwise every
specialization (i.e. every point of C0 ) would be supersingular.)Corollary 4.4 For any finitely generated field K of positive characteristic and any g ≥ 3
there exists a finite extension K 0 /K, a curve C/K 0 and an abelian variety A/F = κ(C)of dimension g with good reduction everywhere such that the projective p-adic Galois
representation ρ̃A,p : GF → P GL2 (Vp (A)) factors over π1 (C, P ) and has an infinite image
G̃F,p := Im(ρ̃A,p ) (which therefore contains an infinite pro-p-subgroup of finite index).
Proof. The first statement follows by combining parts (c) and (a) of Theorem 4.3, andthe last assertion follows from Proposition 4.2.
Remark 4.5 It seems more difficult (if not impossible) to characterize the more generalsituation studied in section 2 in terms of moduli spaces. Clearly, if the conditions ofTheorem 2.5 hold, then we have a morphism f : C → Ag,d (for some d) such that f (P ) isa CM-point (i.e. the reduction AP ⊗ K is an abelian variety with CM), but the converse
need not hold, even if we assume the existence of an automorphism σ ∈ Aut(A/F ); cf.
Remark 5.2 below.

5

Explicit Constructions via Cyclic Coverings

We now apply the results of section 2 to the abelian varieties A/F associated to certain
cyclic coverings of curves which were studied in [FKV].
For this, we first observe that the conditions of Theorem 2.5 are applicable to thegeneral situation considered in [FKV], which therefore yields a general criterion for factorizability of the projective p-adic representations {ρ̃λi } over π1 (C, P ).
Proposition 5.1 Let F0 = K(t), where t is transcendental over K and K contains the
N -th roots of unity. Suppose that t1 , . . . , tn+1 are n + 1 distinct elements in K, and put
tn+2 = t. In addition, suppose that m1 , . . . , mn+2 are integers with 1 ≤ mi < N suchthat gcd(m1 , . . . , mn+2 , N ) = 1, m1 + . . . + mn+2 ≡ 0 mod N and mi 6= N − mn+2 , for1 ≤ i ≤ n + 1. Let π : X → P1F0 denote the cyclic covering of degree N defined by theequationy N = c(x − t1 )m1 · · · (x − tn+2 )mn+2 ,(16)
where c ∈ K ∗ , and let σ ∈ Aut(π) be a generator, which we view as an automorphism of
the Jacobian JX of X.
a) There is a σ-stable abelian subvariety A0 := JXnew ≤ JX of dimension dim A0 =1
φ(N )n such that condition (4) holds for every prime p ≡ 1 (mod N ).
214b) A0 has potentially stable reduction over F0 ; more precisely, for every cyclic covering
F/K(t) which is ramified of order N at t1 , . . . , tn+1 , the abelian variety A = A0 ⊗ F has
good reduction everywhere.
c) If A/F is as in b) and P ∈ C(K), where C/K is the smooth curve with function
field κ(C) = F , then all the projective representations {ρ̃A,λi }(i,N )=1 factor over π1 (C, P )if and only if the reduction AP has CM and if Z(End0 (AP )) ⊂ Q(σ̄).
d) Suppose that the condition of d) holds, and that in addition we have p > 3 and(n, p − 1) = 1 (and also N - 6 if n = 3). Then for each i with (i, N ) = 1 the projective
representation ρ̃A,λi yields a surjectionρ̃A,λi : π1 (C, P )  PGLn (Zp ).
Proof. a) The abelian subvariety A0 = JXnew defined in section 5.1 of [FKV] has thisproperty (cf. [FKV], Theorem 5.5(a)).
b) This is (a special case of) Theorem 5.15 of [FKV].
c) In view of a) and b), this follows directly from Theorem 2.5.
d) By construction, Im(ρ̃A,λi ) ⊂ PGLn (Zp ) = PSLn (Zp ). If rp : PSLn (Zp ) →PSLn (Fp ) denotes the homomorphism induced by reduction modulo p, then by Theorem 5.5(d) of [FKV], the map rp ◦ ρ̃A,λi : π1 (C, P ) → PGLn (Fp ) = PSLn (Fp ) is surjective,
and hence the same is true for ρ̃A,λi by Serre [Se1], Lemma 3 (and exercise 1) of section
IV.3.4 (pp. IV-23 and IV-27).
Proof of Theorem 1.1. By the results of [FKV], section 5.3, we know that there is anabelian variety A/F of dimension 3 which has good reduction everywhere and which has
an automorphism σ ∈ Aut(A) of order 4 such that (11) holds. Furthermore, we know
by that its reduction AP ∼ E 3 , where E/K is an elliptic curve with Q(i) ⊂ End0K (E),and hence AP has CM. Furthermore, since the assumption char(K) ≡ 3 (mod 4) meansthat E/K is supersingular, we have Z(End0K (AP )) ' End0K (E) = Q, and so we haveautomatically that Z(End0K (AP )) ≤ Q(σ̄). Thus, by Theorem 2.5 we see that ρ̃A,λ andρ̃A,λ−1 both factor over π1 (C, P ), and by the same argument as in Proposition 5.1 wehave that their image is PSL3 (Zp ) = PGL3 (Zp ), if p ≡ 5 (12).
Remark 5.2 Unfortunately, if we assume that char(K) 6≡ 3 (4), which means (in thesituation of Theorem 1.1) that End0K (E) = Q(i), then the condition Z(End0K (AP )) ⊂Q(σ̄) does not hold, and so ρ̃A,λi does not factor over π1 (C, P ), even though the reduction
AP is a CM-variety (in fact, AP is isogenous to the third power of an elliptic curve with
CM by Q(i), as was mentioned in the above proof).
Indeed, in this case we have that Z(AP ) ' Q(i), so the desired containment holds if
and only if Z(AP ) = Q(σ̄), i.e. if and only if σ̄ ∈ Z(AP ). But the following lemma showsthat this is never the case:
15

Lemma 5.3 The reduction AP contains three isomorphic elliptic curves Ei ≤ AP suchthat AP ∼ E1 × E2 × E3 . Furthermore, for each i = 1, 2, 3, the automorphism σ̄ restricts
to an automorphism σ̄i = σ̄|Ei ∈ Aut(Ei ) with the property that there exist isomorphisms∼
fi : E1 → Ei with fi ◦ σ̄1 = σ̄i−1 ◦ fi , for i = 2, 3.
Proof. As we shall see, we can use the elliptic curves Ei constructed in the proof of Lemma
5.21 of [FKV]. However, since we have to keep track of the induced σ-action, we need toreview their construction from the very beginning.
Thus, let F = K(t, s) be as in Theorem 1.1, and let X/F denote (the normalizationof) the curve defined by the equationy 4 = cx(x − 1)(x + 1)(x − a)3 (x − t)2 .
Recall that A = JXnew is the new part of the Jacobian JX of X with respect to theautomorphism σJ ∈ Aut(JX ) which is induced by the curve automorphism σ ∈ AutF (X)defined by σ ∗ (x) = x, σ ∗ (y) = iy, where i ∈ K is a fixed primitive fourth root of unity.
Now by [FKV], Proposition 5.18, the reduction X P at P = (a, 0) (of the associatedstable model) of X/F has precisely two (smooth) irreducible components X 1 and X 2given by the equations(17)

y12 = x1 (x21 − d) and y24 = cx2 (x22 − 1)(x2 − a),respectively, where d = c/g(a). Since X 1 is an elliptic curve and X 2 is a curve of genus
3, it is clear that the reduction σ̄ of σ maps each component X k into itself, and so the
induced automorphism σ̄J on the reduction (J X )P ' JX 1 × JX 2 has the form σ̄ = σ̄1 × σ̄20 .
We now claim that these automorphisms (viewed as automorphisms of X k ) satisfy
the relations(18)

σ̄1∗ x1 = −x1 , σ̄1∗ y1 = −iy1 ,and (σ̄20 )∗ (x2 ) = x2 , (σ̄20 )∗ y2 = iy2 .

Indeed, if x̄2 and ȳ2 denote the images of x and y under the second reduction map(corresponding to the component X 2 ), then the proof of [FKV], Proposition 5.18, showsthat x2 = x̄2 and y2 = ȳ2 /(x̄2 − a). Since (σ̄20 )∗ x̄2 = x̄2 and (σ̄20 )∗ ȳ2 = iȳ2 , the relation(18) is clear for σ̄20 . On the other hand, if x̄1 and ȳ1 denote the images of (x − a)/s4 andy/s5 with respect to the first reduction map, then we have by the proof of Proposition
5.18 that x1 = ȳ12 /(x̄1 (x̄1 − b0 )) and y1 = a0 ȳ1 /x1 , where a0 = ca(a2 − 1) and b0 = d/a0 .
Thus, since σ̄1∗ x̄1 = x̄1 and σ̄1∗ ȳ1 = iȳ1 , we see that σ̄1∗ x1 = (iȳ1 )2 /(x̄1 (x̄1 − b0 )) = −x1
and σ̄1∗ y1 = a0 (σ̄1∗ ȳ1 )/(σ̄1∗ x1 ) = a0 (iȳ1 )/(−x1 ) = −iy1 , which means that (18) holds for σ̄1
as well.
Next, by Lemma 5.20 of [FKV] we know that JX 2 ∼ E2 × E3 × E 0 , where the elliptic
curves belong respectively to the three elliptic subfields F2 , F3 and F 0 of index 2 of thefunction field K(x2 , y2 ) of X 2 , and that these subfields are given by
F2 = K(z2 , v2 ),F3 = K(z3 , v3 ) and F 0 = K(x2 , y22 ),16where z2 = y2 (1 − b2 x2 )/(x22 − 1), z3 = z2 (x2 − b2 )/(b3 (1 − b2 x2 )), v2 = z22 /(u − 1), andv3 = v1 /b2 with u := cx2 (x2 − 1)). These elements satisfy the relation
zk2 = vk (vk2 − 1) for k = 2, 3,∼

and so we have an isomorphism f : E2 → E3 such that f ∗ v3 = v2 and f ∗ z3 = z2 .
Furthermore, if σ̄k∗ = (σ̄20 )∗|Fk denotes the restriction of (σ̄20 )∗ to the subfield Fk for
k = 2, 3, then we have from (18)σ̄k∗ zk = izk , σ̄k∗ vk = −vk ,(19)for k = 2, 3,

and so we have f ◦ σ̄2 = σ̄3 .
On the other hand, since d = d41 is a fourth power in K (by hypothesis), we have∼
an isomorphism f2 : E1 := X 1 → E2 such that f2∗ v1 = d21 x1 , f2∗ z1 = d31 y1 . Comparing(18) with (19) shows that f2 ◦ σ̄1 = σ̄2−1 ◦ f2 , and hence a similar relation holds for∼
f3 := f ◦ f2 : E1 → E3 .
new
Since σ̄ 2 acts non-trivially on Ek , we see that Ek ≤ AP = (J X )P , for k = 1, 2, 3, andso AP = E1 + E2 + E3 since dim AP = 3 and by the above E1 , E2 , E3 generate an abeliansubvariety of dimension 3. Thus AP ∼ E1 × E2 × E3 .
Remark 5.4 Note that the above lemma also shows that Lemma 5.21(b) of [FKV] isfalse if char(K) 6≡ 3 (mod 4), and hence the same is true for Theorem 5.22 (and forthe consequence on p. 87). Thus, in both cases one has to add the condition thatchar(K) ≡ 3 (mod 4).
Explicitly, the error occurs in the second paragraph of the proof (of part (b)) where
it is asserted (without proof) that there exist isomorphisms f1i : E1 → Ei such thatf1i ◦ α1 = αi ◦ f1i , where the αi ∈ End(Ei ) are a certain endomorphisms of degree p.

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