Curve generation criterion for an abelian variety Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
A smooth projective curve generates by its point differences if and only if it meets every prime Weil divisor. If a prime Weil divisor avoids , its restriction to has degree zero; constancy of line bundle degree in a family shows that every translate either contains or misses it. This forces invariance under and puts the generated subgroup inside the line bundle translation stabilizer. If this subgroup were all of , the divisor would be algebraically trivial, contradicting its positive intersection with an ample line bundle. Conversely a proper closed generated subgroup admits a disjoint divisor by the pole divisor avoiding a fiber construction, after translating the fiber to contain .
Throughout the algebraic questions, is a smooth projective connected algebraic curve over the algebraically closed field . This is the curve convention needed for the Jacobian variety; for an arbitrary singular or nonproper curve the assertions need not hold. Choose and write .
The degree- Picard functor of a curve is
with pullback as its action on morphisms. Equivalently, normalize by tensoring with and remember the resulting trivialization along . Since , an automorphism of a line bundle is multiplication by a base unit; preservation of this trivialization forces that unit to be . Thus normalized line bundles have effective descent and the displayed functor is already the appropriate sheaf, rather than just a list of classes over fields.
Here is a construction of its representing scheme. The symmetric product of a curve represents relative effective degree- Cartier divisors. It is projective, and its completed local ring at is a power-series ring in the elementary symmetric coefficients of local parameters at each . Thus it is smooth of dimension , in every characteristic. Put
This is open by the semicontinuity theorem for coherent cohomology. It is nonempty: choose points successively imposing independent vanishing conditions on , so that , and use Serre duality. The Riemann-Roch theorem gives on .
For any fixed line bundle of degree , use a copy of with the universal normalized line bundle . This represents exactly the open subfunctor on which . Indeed, cohomology and base change for line bundles on a curve makes a rank-one vector bundle. The evaluation morphism
has a unique relative zero Cartier divisor of degree and recovers the point of . No choice of a global generator on is needed. Conversely that zero Cartier divisor recovers modulo a bundle from .
These charts cover: given any degree- line bundle , choose a nonspecial effective degree- Cartier divisor and take . On the overlap of and , the unique effective representative of is constructed by the same rank-one evaluation map. It therefore gives a regular transition morphism; uniqueness gives both the inverse and the cocycle identity. Gluing gives a scheme representing , with a universal normalized line bundle.
The construction is of finite type, not an infinite union of indispensable charts. Choose and a fixed line bundle of degree . Every has a nonzero section by the Riemann-Roch theorem, so the universal effective Cartier divisor gives a surjection . The inverse images of the charts cover the projective, hence quasi-compact, symmetric product of a curve . A finite subcover gives finitely many charts for . This surjection also makes irreducible. The charts show that it is smooth of dimension .
For properness, apply the valuative criterion for properness. Let be a discrete valuation -algebra with fraction field , and let be a degree- line bundle on . A rational section represents it by a Cartier divisor. Its closure in the regular surface is again a Cartier divisor, since regular local rings are factorial. Thus extends to a line bundle on , whose fibre degree remains by constancy of line bundle degree in a family. Two extensions with the same generic class differ by a vertical Cartier divisor. The special fibre is irreducible, so that Cartier divisor is an integer multiple of the entire fibre, the principal Cartier divisor of a power of a uniformizer. The extensions therefore give the same normalized Picard class. This proves existence and uniqueness in the valuative criterion, hence separatedness and properness of the finite-type scheme .
Consequently is a smooth proper -variety of dimension . Tensoring by identifies it with . On the tensor product and inverse of line bundles induce the algebraic group operations; it is the Jacobian variety, an abelian variety.
Pull back by the morphism of varieties
The fiber of this line bundle over is . An abelian variety is connected, so the preceding constancy of line bundle degree in a family applies. Consequently for every .