EXPLICIT SURJECTIVITY RESULTS FOR DRINFELD MODULES OF RANK 2

Abstract

Let $K=\mathbb{F}_{q}(T)$ and $A=\mathbb{F}_{q}[T]$. Suppose that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ is a Drinfeld $A$-module of rank $2$ over $K$ which does not have complex multiplication. We obtain an explicit upper bound (dependent on $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$) on the degree of primes ${\wp}$ of $K$ such that the image of the Galois representation on the ${\wp}$-torsion points of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ is not surjective, in the case of $q$ odd. Our results are a Drinfeld module analogue of Serre’s explicit large image results for the Galois representations on $p$-torsion points of elliptic curves (Serre, Propriétés galoisiennes des points d’ordre fini des courbes elliptiques, Invent. Math. 15 (1972), 259–331; Serre, Quelques applications du théorème de densité de Chebotarev, Inst. Hautes Etudes Sci. Publ. Math. 54 (1981), 323–401.) and are unconditional because the generalized Riemann hypothesis for function fields holds. An explicit isogeny theorem for Drinfeld $A$-modules of rank $2$ over $K$ is also proven.