Abelian varieties over finite fields Frans Oort Mathematisch Instituut, P.O. Box. 80.010, NL - 3508 TA Utrecht The Netherlands e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract. A. Weil proved that the geometric Frobenius π = F a of an abelian variety over a finite field with q = pa elements has absolute value √ q for every embedding. T. Honda and J. Tate showed that A 7→ πA gives a bijection between the set of isogeny classes of simple abelian varieties over Fq and the set of conjugacy classes of q-Weil numbers. Higher-dimensional varieties over finite fields, Summer school in G¨ottingen, June 2007 Introduction We could try to classify isomorphism classes of abelian varieties. The theory of moduli spaces of polarized abelian varieties answers this question completely. This is a geometric theory. However in this general, abstract theory it is often not easy to exhibit explicit examples, to construct abelian varieties with required properties. A coarser classification is that of studying isogeny classes of abelian varieties.A wonderful and powerful theorem, the Honda-Tate theory, gives a complete classification of isogeny classes of abelian varieties over a finite field, see Theorem 1.2. The basic idea starts with a theorem by A. Weil, a proof for the Weil conjec- ture for an abelian variety A over a finite field K = Fq, see 3.2: the geometric Frobenius π of A/K is an algebraic integer A √ which for every embedding ψ : Q(πA) → C has absolute value | ψ(πA) |= q. For an abelian variety A over K = Fq the assignment A 7→ πA associates to A its geometric Frobenius πA; the isogeny class of A gives the conjugacy class of the algebraic integer πA, and conversely an algebraic integer which is a Weil q-number determines an isogeny class, as T.