Finite linear groups, lattices, and products of elliptic curves

Vladimir L. Popov, Yuri G. Zarhin

Published 2005-05-26, updated 2005-09-20Version 3

Let $V$ be a finite dimensional complex linear space and let $G$ be an irreducible finite subgroup of $\GL(V)$. For a $G$-invariant lattice $\Lambda$ in $V$ of maximal rank, we give a description of structure of the complex torus $V/\Lambda$. In particular, we prove that for a wide class of groups, $V/\Lambda$ is isogenous to a self-product of an elliptic curve, and that in many cases $V/\Lambda$ is isomorphic to a product of mutually isogenous elliptic curves with complex multiplication. We show that there are $G$ and $\Lambda$ such that the complex torus $V/\Lambda$ is not an abelian variety but one can always replace $\Lambda$ by another $G$-invariant lattice $\Delta$ such that $V/\Delta$ is a product if elliptic curves with complex multiplication. We amplify these results with a criterion, in terms of the character and the Schur $\mathbf Q$-index of $G$-module $V$, of the existence of a nonzero $G$-invariant lattice in $V$.