Consider a Shimura curve $X^D_0(N)$ over the rational numbers. We determine criteria for the twist by an Atkin-Lehner involution to have points over a local field. As a corollary we give a new proof of the theorem of Jordan-Livné on $\mathbf{Q}_p$ points when $p\mid D$ and for the first time give criteria for $\mathbf{Q}_p$ points when $p\mid N$. We also give congruence conditions for roots modulo $p$ of Hilbert class polynomials.

The purpose of this note is introducing a method for proving the existence of no rational points on a coarse moduli space $X$ of abelian varieties over a given number field $K$, in cases where the moduli problem is not fine and points in $X(K)$ may not be represented by an abelian variety (with additional structure) admitting a model over the field $K$. This is typically the case when the abelian varieties that are being classified have even dimension. The main idea, inspired on the work of Ellenberg and Skinner on the modularity of $\mathbb{Q}$-curves, is that to a point $P=[A]\in X(K)$ represented by an abelian variety $A/\bar K$ one may still attach a Galois representation of $\operatorname{Gal}(\bar K/K)$ with values in the quotient group $\operatorname{GL}(T_\ell(A))/\operatorname{Aut}(A)$, provided $\operatorname{Aut}(A)$ lies in the centre of $\operatorname{GL}(T_\ell(A))$. We exemplify our method in the cases where $X$ is a Shimura curve over an imaginary quadratic field or an Atkin-Lehner quotient over $\mathbb{Q}$.

In this article we refine the method of Bertolini and Darmon and prove several finiteness results for anticyclotomic Selmer groups of Hilbert modular forms of parallel weight two.

We explicitly construct the canonical rational models of Shimura curves, both analytically in terms of modular forms and algebraically in terms of coefficients of genus 2 curves, in the cases of quaternion algebras of discriminant 6 and 10. This emulates the classical construction in the elliptic curve case. We also give families of genus 2 QM curves, whose Jacobians are the corresponding abelian surfaces on the Shimura curve, and with coefficients that are modular forms of weight 12. We apply these results to show that our $j$-functions are supported exactly at those primes where the genus 2 curve does not admit potentially good reduction, and construct fields where this potentially good reduction is attained. Finally, using $j$, we construct the fields of moduli and definition for some moduli problems associated to the Atkin--Lehner group actions.