Distribution of Points on Abelian Covers Over Finite Fields

Abstract: We determine in this paper the distribution of the number of points on the covers of $\mathbb{P}^1(\mathbb{F}_q)$ such that $K(C)$ is a Galois extension and $\mbox{Gal}(K(C)/K)$ is abelian when $q$ is fixed and the genus, $g$, tends to infinity. This generalizes the work of Kurlberg and Rudnick and Bucur, David, Feigon and Lalin who considered different families of curves over $\mathbb{F}_q$. In all cases, the distribution is given by a sum of $q+1$ random variables.