Unlikely Intersections in Finite Characteristic

Abstract

We present a heuristic argument based on Honda-Tate theory against many conjectures in `unlikely intersections' over the algebraic closure of a finite field; notably, we conjecture that every abelian variety of dimension 4 is isogenous to a Jacobian. Using methods of additive combinatorics, we are able to give a negative answer to a related question of Chai and Oort where the ambient Shimura Variety is a power of the modular curve.

Corrected mistakes, added references, and reduced exponent of modular curve from 462 to 270