An ${\mathbb{F}}_{p^2}$-maximal Wiman's sextic and its automorphisms

Abstract

In 1895 Wiman introduced a Riemann surface $\mathcal{W}$ of genus $6$ over the complex field $\mathbb{C}$ defined by the homogeneous equation $\mathcal{W}:X^6+Y^6+Z^6+(X^2+Y^2+Z^2)(X^4+Y^4+Z^4)-12X^2{Y}^2{Z}^2=0$, and showed that its full automorphism group is isomorphic to the symmetric group $S_5$. The curve $\mathcal{W}$ was previously studied as a curve defined over a finite field ${\mathbb{F}}_{p^2}$ where $p$ is a prime, and necessary and sufficient conditions for its maximality over ${\mathbb{F}}_{p^2}$ were obtained. In this paper we first show that the result of Wiman concerning the automorphism group of $\mathcal{W}$ holds also over an algebraically closed field $\mathbb{K}$ of positive characteristic $p$, provided that $p\ge 7$. For $p=2,3$ the polynomial $X^6+Y^6+Z^6+(X^2+Y^2+Z^2)(X^4+Y^4+Z^4)-12X^2{Y}^2{Z}^2$ is not irreducible over $\mathbb{K}$, while for $p=5$ the curve $\mathcal{W}$ is rational and $Aut(\mathcal{W})\cong PGL(2,\mathbb{K})$. We also show that the ${\mathbb{F}}_{19^2}$-maximal Wiman's sextic $\mathcal{W}$ is not Galois covered by the Hermitian curve ${\mathcal{H}}_{19}$ over ${\mathbb{F}}_{19^2}$.

arXiv commentarXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1603.06706, arXiv:1703.10592