Principally polarizable isogeny classes of abelian surfaces over finite fields

Abstract

Let A be an isogeny class of abelian surfaces over F_q with Weil polynomial x^4 + ax^3 + bx^2 + aqx + q^2. We show that A does not contain a surface that has a principal polarization if and only if a^2 - b = q and b < 0 and all prime divisors of b are congruent to 1 modulo 3. We use this result in a forthcoming paper in which we determine which isogeny classes of abelian surfaces over finite fields contain Jacobians.