High $\ell$-torsion rank for class groups over function fields

Abstract

We prove that in the function field setting, $\ell$-torsion in the class groups of quadratic fields can be arbitrarily large. In fact, we explicitly produce a family whose $\ell$-rank growth matches the growth in the setting of genus theory, which might be best possible. We do this by specifically focusing on the Artin-Schreir curves $y^2=x^q-x$.