K3 surfaces over finite fields with given L-function

The zeta function of a K3 surface over a finite field satisfies a number of obvious (archimedean and l-adic) and a number of less obvious (p-adic) constraints. We consider the converse question, in the style of Honda-Tate: given a function Z satisfying all these constraints, does there exist a K3 surface whose zeta-function equals Z? Assuming semi-stable reduction, we show that the answer is yes if we allow a finite extension of the finite field. An important ingredient in the proof is the construction of complex projective K3 surfaces with complex multiplication by a given CM field.Comment: (v2: minor corrections, added numerical evidence by Kedlaya and Sutherland

Characteristic classes for curves of genus one

We compute the cohomology of the stack M_1 with coefficients in Z[1/2], and in low degrees with coefficients in Z. Cohomology classes on M_1 give rise to characteristic classes, cohomological invariants of families of curves of genus one. We prove a number of vanishing results for those characteristic classes, and give explicit examples of families with non-vanishing characteristic classes

The Carlitz shtuka

Recently we have used the Carlitz exponential map to define a finitely generated submodule of the Carlitz module having the right properties to be a function field analogue of the group of units in a number field. Similarly, we constructed a finite module analogous to the class group of a number field. In this short note more algebraic constructions of these "unit" and "class" modules are given and they are related to Ext modules in the category of shtukas.Comment: 9 page