On the Picard numbers of abelian varieties in positive characteristic

Abstract

In this paper, we study the set $R_g^{(p)}$ of possible Picard numbers of abelian varieties of dimension $g$ over algebraically closed fields of characteristic $p>0$. We show that many of the results for complex abelian varieties have analogues in positive characteristic: non-completeness in dimension $g \geq 2$, asymptotic completeness as $g \rightarrow +\infty$, structure results for abelian varieties of large Picard number. On the way, we highlight and discuss new characteristic $p>0$ features and pathologies: non-additivity of the range of Picard numbers, supersingularity index of an abelian variety, dependence of $R_g^{(p)}$ on $p$, relation to the $p$-rank and the Newton polygon.