Bielliptic smooth plane curves and quadratic points
Abstract
Let Ck be a smooth projective curve over a global field k, which is neither rational nor elliptic. Harris-Silverman, when p=0, and Schweizer, when p>0 together with an extra condition on the Jacobian variety Jac(Ck) arising from Mordell's conjecture, showed that C has infinitely many quadratic points over some finite field extension L/k inside k (a fixed algebraic closure of k) if and only if C is hyperelliptic or bielliptic. Now, let Ck be a smooth plane curve of a fixed degree d≥4 with p=0 or p>(d-1)(d-2)+1 (up to an extra condition on Jac(Ck) in positive characteristic). Then, we prove that Ck admits always finitely many quadratic points unless d=4. A so-called geometrically complete families for the different strata of smooth bielliptic plane quartic curves by their automorphism groups, are given. Interestingly, we show (in a very simple way) that there are only finitely many quadratic extensions k(D) of a fixed number field k, in which we may have more solutions to the Fermat's and the Klein's equations of degree d≥5; Xd+Yd-Zd=0 and Xd-1Y+Yd-1Z+Zd-1X=0 respectively, than these over k (the same holds for any non-singular projective plane equation of degree d≥ 5 over k, and also in general when k is a global field after imposing an extra condition on Jac(Ck)).
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