The functional equation for L-functions of hyperelliptic curves

Abstract

We compute the $L$-functions of a large class of algebraic curves, and verify the expected functional equation numerically. Our computations are based on our previous results on stable reduction to calculate the local $L$-factor and the conductor exponent at the primes of bad reduction. Most of our examples are hyperelliptic curves of genus $g\geq 2$ defined over $\mathbb{Q}$ which have semistable reduction at every prime $p$. We also treat a few more general examples of superelliptic curves.