Primes in the denominators of Igusa Class Polynomials

Abstract

The purpose of this note is to suggest an analogue for genus 2 curves of part of Gross and Zagier's work on elliptic curves. Experimentally, for genus 2 curves with CM by a quartic CM field K, it appears that primes dividing the denominators of the discriminants of the Igusa class polynomials all have the property 1) that they are bounded by d, the absolute value of the discriminant of K, and 2) that they divide d-x^2, for some integer x whose square is less than d. A slightly stronger condition is given in Section 3. Such primes are primes of bad reduction for the genus 2 curve and primes of supersingular reduction for the Jacobian of the genus 2 curve.