We study the existence of Artin–Schreier curves with large a‑number. We show that Artin–Schreier curves with large a‑number can be written in certain forms and discuss their supersingularity. We also give a basis of the de Rham cohomology of Artin–Schreier curves. By computing the rank of the Hasse–Witt matrix of the curve, we also give bounds on the a‑number of trigonal curves of genus 5 in small characteristic.

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We study large groups of birational transformations Bir(X), where X is a variety of dimension at least 3, defined over C or a subfield of C. Two prominent cases are when X is the projective space P^n, in which case Bir(X) is the Cremona group of rank n, or when X⊂P^{n+1} is a smooth cubic hypersurface. In both cases, and more generally when X is birational to a conic bundle, we produce infinitely many distinct group homomorphisms from Bir(X) to Z/2, showing in particular that the group Bir(X) is not perfect, and thus not simple. As a consequence, we also obtain that the Cremona group of rank n⩾3 is not generated by linear and Jonquières elements.

Let X be an equivariant embedding of a connected reductive group X over an algebraically closed field X of positive characteristic. Let X denote a Borel subgroup of X . A X -Schubert variety in X is a subvariety of the form $\diag (G)\cdot V $, where X is a X -orbit closure in X . In the case where X is the wonderful compactification of a group of adjoint type, the X -Schubert varieties are the closures of Lusztig's X -stable pieces. We prove that X admits a Frobenius splitting which is compatible with all X -Schubert varieties. Moreover, when X is smooth, projective and toroidal, then any X -Schubert variety in X admits a stable Frobenius splitting along an ample divisors. Although this indicates that X -Schubert varieties have nice singularities we present an example of a non-normal X -Schubert variety in the wonderful compactification of a group of type X . Finally we also extend the Frobenius splitting results to the more general class of X -Schubert varieties.