The Intersection of Two Fermat Hypersurfaces in P^3 via Computation of Quotient Curves

We study the intersection of two particular Fermat hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{P}^3$ over a finite field. Using the Kani-Rosen decomposition we study arithmetic properties of this curve in terms of its quotients. Explicit computation of the quotients is done using a Gr\"obner basis algorithm. We also study the $p$-rank, zeta function, and number of rational points, of the modulo $p$ reduction of the curve. We show that the Jacobian of the genus 2 quotient is $(4,4)$-split

Curves of every genus with many points, I: Abelian and toric families

Let N_q(g) denote the maximal number of F_q-rational points on any curve of genus g over the finite field F_q. Ihara (for square q) and Serre (for general q) proved that limsup_{g-->infinity} N_q(g)/g > 0 for any fixed q. In their proofs they constructed curves with many points in infinitely many genera; however, their sequences of genera are somewhat sparse. In this paper, we prove that lim_{g-->infinity} N_q(g) = infinity. More precisely, we use abelian covers of P^1 to prove that liminf_{g-->infinity} N_q(g)/(g/log g) > 0, and we use curves on toric surfaces to prove that liminf_{g-->infty} N_q(g)/g^{1/3} > 0; we also show that these results are the best possible that can be proved with these families of curves.Comment: LaTeX, 20 page

Rational points on X_0^+ (p^r)

We show how the recent isogeny bounds due to \'E. Gaudron and G. R\'emond allow to obtain the triviality of X_0^+ (p^r)(Q), for r>1 and p a prime exceeding 2.10^{11}. This includes the case of the curves X_split (p). We then prove, with the help of computer calculations, that the same holds true for p in the range 10 < p < 10^{14}, p\neq 13. The combination of those results completes the qualitative study of such sets of rational points undertook in previous papers, with the exception of p=13.Comment: 16 pages, no figur

Ray class fields of global function fields with many rational places

A general type of ray class fields of global function fields is investigated. The systematic computation of their genera leads to new examples of curves over finite fields with comparatively many rational points.Comment: Latex2e, 27 pages, 20 tables, revised version as submitted to Acta Arithmetic