Finite Groups of Symplectic Automorphisms of Supersingular K3 surfaces in Odd Characteristics

Abstract: In 2009, Dolgachev-Keum show that finite groups of tame symplectic automorphisms of K3 surfaces in positive characteristics are subgroups of the Mathieu group of degree 23 under mild conditions. In this paper, we utilize lattice-theoretic methods to investigate symplectic actions of finite groups G on K3 surfaces in odd characteristics. In the tame cases (i.e., the order of G is coprime with p) and all the superspecial cases, one can associate with the action a Leech pair which can be detected via H\"ohn-Mason's list. Notice that the superspecial cases have been resolved by Ohashi-Sch\"utt. If the K3 surface is supersingular with Artin invariant at least two, we develop a new machinery called p-root pairs to detect possible symplectic finite group actions (without the assumption of tameness). The concept of p-root pair is closely related to root systems and Weyl groups. In particular, we recover many results by Dolgachev-Keum with a different method and give an upper bound for the exponent of p in |G|.