Homomorphisms of abelian varieties over finite fields

These are notes of my lectures at the summer school Higher-dimensional geometry over finite fields in Goettingen, June--July 2007. We present a proof of Tates theorem on homomorphisms of abelian varieties over finite fields (including the $ell=p$ case) that is based on a quaternion trick. In fact, a a slightly stronger version of those theorems with finite coefficients is proven.

Galois groups of Mori trinomials and hyperelliptic curves with big monodromy

We compute the Galois groups for a certain class of polynomials over the the field of rational numbers that was introduced by S. Mori and study the monodromy of corresponding hyperelliptic jacobians.

Surjectivity of certain word maps on PSL(2,C) and SL(2,C)

We show that an element w of a free group F on n generators defines a surjective word map of PSL(2,C)^n onto PSL(2,C) unless w belongs to the second derived subgroup of F. We also describe certain words maps that are surjective on SL(2,C) x SL(2,C). Here C is the field of complex numbers.

Jordan groups and algebraic surfaces

We prove that an analogue of Jordans theorem on finite subgroups of general linear groups holds for the groups of biregular automorphisms of algebraic surfaces. This gives a positive answer to a question of Vladimir L. Popov.

A finiteness theorem for the Brauer group of K3 surfaces in odd characteristic

Let $k$ be a field finitely generated over the finite field $mathbb F_p$ of odd characteristic $p$. For any K3 surface $X$ over $k$ we prove that the prime to $p$ component of the cokernel of the natural map $Br(k)to Br(X)$ is finite.

Families of absolutely simple hyperelliptic jacobians

We prove that the jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve $y^2=(x-t)h(x)$ has no nontrivial endomorphisms over an algebraic closure of the ground field $K$ of characteristic zero if $t in K$ and the Galois group of the polynomial $h(x)$ over $K$ is very big and $deg(h)$ is an even number >8. (The case of odd $deg(h)>3$ follows easily from previous results of the author.)

Absolutely simple Prymians of trigonal curves

Using Galois Theory, we construct explicitly absolutely simple (principally polarized) Prym varieties that are not isomorphic to jacobians of curves even if we ignore the polarizations. Our approach is based on the previous papers math/0610138 [math.AG] and math/0605028 [math.AG] .