Period Constraints on Hyperelliptic Branch Points

Abstract

Information Theoretic analysis of the periods of a hyperelliptic curve provides more information about the well--known but abstract relationship between the branch points and the periods. Here one constructs a canonical homology basis for a hyperelliptic curve that shows that its periods must satisfy certain constraints and defines an open set in the Siegel upper half space that cannot contain any period matrices of hyperelliptic curves.