Semistable reduction of abelian varieties over extensions of small degree

We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for abelian varieties to acquire semistable reduction over fields of low degree. Our criteria are expressed in terms of torsion points of small order defined over unramified extensions.Comment: LaTeX2

Hodge groups of abelian varieties with purely multiplicative reduction

The main result of the paper is that if $A$ is an abelian variety over a subfield $F$ of ${\bold C}$, and $A$ has purely multiplicative reduction at a discrete valuation of $F$, then the Hodge group of $A$ is semisimple. Further, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the Hodge group to be semisimple. We obtain bounds on certain torsion subgroups for abelian varieties which do not have purely multiplicative reduction at a given discrete valuation, and therefore obtain bounds on torsion for abelian varieties, defined over number fields, whose Hodge groups are not semisimple.Comment: This is an updated version of the paper. LaTeX2e or LaTeX2.09 or AMSLaTeX. Contact: [email protected]

Subgroups of inertia groups arising from abelian varieties

Given an abelian variety over a field with a discrete valuation, Grothendieck defined a certain open normal subgroup of the absolute inertia group. This subgroup encodes information on the extensions over which the abelian variety acquires semistable reduction. We study this subgroup, and use it to obtain information on the extensions over which the abelian variety acquires semistable reduction.Comment: LaTeX 2e, updated versio

Twisting commutative algebraic groups

If $V$ is a commutative algebraic group over a field $k$, $O$ is a commutative ring that acts on $V$, and $I$ is a finitely generated free $O$-module with a right action of the absolute Galois group of $k$, then there is a commutative algebraic group $I \otimes_O V$ over $k$, which is a twist of a power of $V$. These group varieties have applications to cryptography (in the cases of abelian varieties and algebraic tori over finite fields) and to the arithmetic of abelian varieties over number fields. For purposes of such applications we devote this article to making explicit this tensor product construction and its basic properties.Comment: To appear in Journal of Algebra. Minor changes from original versio