Monodromy groups of Jacobians with definite quaternionic multiplication

Abstract

Let $A$ be an abelian variety over a number field. The connected monodromy field of $A$ is the minimal field over which the images of all the $\ell$-adic torsion representations have connected Zariski closure. We show that for all even $g\ge 4$, there exist infinitely many geometrically nonisogenous abelian varieties $A$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ of dimension $g$ where the connected monodromy field is strictly larger than the field of definition of the endomorphisms of $A$. Our construction arises from explicit families of hyperelliptic Jacobians with definite quaternionic multiplication.

55 pages. v2: extended and improved the discussion of the moduli space interpretation of our constructions