Explicit arithmetic of Jacobians of generalized Legendre curves over global function fields

We study the Jacobian $J$ of the smooth projective curve $C$ of genus $r-1$ with affine model $y^r = x^{r-1}(x + 1)(x + t)$ over the function field $mathbb{F}_p(t)$, when $p$ is prime and $rge 2$ is an integer prime to $p$. When $q$ is a power of $p$ and $d$ is a positive integer, we compute the $L$-function of $J$ over $mathbb{F}_q(t^{1/d})$ and show that the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture holds for $J$ over $mathbb{F}_q(t^{1/d})$. When $d$ is divisible by $r$ and of the form $p^ u +1$, and $K_d := mathbb{F}_p(mu_d,t^{1/d})$, we write down explicit points in $J(K_d)$, show that they generate a subgroup $V$ of rank $(r-1)(d-2)$ whose index in $J(K_d)$ is finite and a power of $p$, and show that the order of the Tate-Shafarevich group of $J$ over $K_d$ is $[J(K_d):V]^2$. When $r>2$, we prove that the new part of $J$ is isogenous over $overline{mathbb{F}_p(t)}$ to the square of a simple abelian variety of dimension $phi(r)/2$ with endomorphism algebra $mathbb{Z}[mu_r]^+$. For a prime $ell$ with $ell mid pr$, we prove that $J[ell](L)={0}$ for any abelian extension $L$ of $overline{mathbb{F}}_p(t)$.