Abelian varieties over Q and modular forms

This paper gives a conjectural characterization of those elliptic curves over the field of complex numbers which "should" be covered by standard modular curves. The elliptic curves in question all have algebraic j-invariant, so they can be viewed as curves over Q-bar, the field of algebraic numbers. The condition that they satisfy is that they must be isogenous to all their Galois conjugates. Borrowing a term from B.H. Gross, "Arithmetic on elliptic curves with complex multiplication," we say that the elliptic curves in question are "Q-curves." Since all complex multiplication elliptic curves are Q-curves (with this definition), and since they are all uniformized by modular forms (Shimura), we consider only non-CM curves for the remainder of this abstract. We prove: 1. Let C be an elliptic curve over Q-bar. Then C is a Q-curve if and only if C is a Q-bar simple factor of an abelian variety A over Q whose algebra of Q-endomorphisms is a number field of degree dim(A). (We say that abelian varieties A/Q with this property are of "GL(2) type.") 2. Suppose that Serre's conjecture on mod p modular forms are correct (Ref: Duke Journal, 1987). Then an abelian variety A over Q is of GL(2)-type if and only if it is a simple factor (over Q) of the Jacobian J_1(N) for some integer N\ge1. (The abelian variety J_1(N) is the Jacobian of the standard modularComment: 19 pages, AMS-TeX 2.

On the abelian fivefolds attached to cubic surfaces

To a family of smooth projective cubic surfaces one can canonically associate a family of abelian fivefolds. In characteristic zero, we calculate the Hodge groups of the abelian varieties which arise in this way. In arbitrary characteristic we calculate the monodromy group of the universal family of abelian varieties, and thus show that the Galois group of the 27 lines on a suitably general cubic surface in positive characteristic is as large as possible.Comment: Fixed classification of Hodge groups; other small edit

Edwards curves and CM curves

Edwards curves are a particular form of elliptic curves that admit a fast, unified and complete addition law. Relations between Edwards curves and Montgomery curves have already been described. Our work takes the view of parameterizing elliptic curves given by their j-invariant, a problematic that arises from using curves with complex multiplication, for instance. We add to the catalogue the links with Kubert parameterizations of X0(2) and X0(4). We classify CM curves that admit an Edwards or Montgomery form over a finite field, and justify the use of isogenous curves when needed