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 $\mathbb{Q}$.

The main result of this paper is a characterization of the abelian varieties $B/K$ defined over Galois number fields with the property that the $L$-function $L(B/K;s)$ is a product of $L$-functions of non-CM newforms over $\mathbb Q$ for congruence subgroups of the form $\Gamma_1(N)$. The characterization involves the structure of $\operatorname{End}(B)$, isogenies between the Galois conjugates of $B$, and a Galois cohomology class attached to $B/K$. We call the varieties having this property strongly modular. The last section is devoted to the study of a family of abelian surfaces with quaternionic multiplication. As an illustration of the ways in which the general results of the paper can be applied we prove the strong modularity of some particular abelian surfaces belonging to that family, and we show how to find nontrivial examples of strongly modular varieties by twisting.

We construct a bipartite Euler system in the sense of Howard for Hilbert modular eigenforms of parallel weight two over totally real fields, generalizing works of Bertolini-Darmon, Longo, Nekovar, Pollack-Weston and others. The construction has direct applications to Iwasawa main conjectures. For instance, it implies in many cases one divisibility of the associated dihedral or anticyclotomic main conjecture, at the same time reducing the other divisibility to a certain nonvanishing criterion for the associated $p$-adic $L$-functions. It also has applications to cyclotomic main conjectures for Hilbert modular forms over CM fields via the technique of Skinner and Urban.

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.

The $j$-function acts as a parametrization of the classical modular curve. Its values at complex multiplication (CM) points are called singular moduli and are algebraic integers. A Shimura curve is a generalization of the modular curve and, if the Shimura curve has genus~$0$, a rational parameterizing function exists and when evaluated at a CM point is again algebraic over~$\mathbf{Q}$. This paper shows that the coordinate maps given by N.~Elkies for the Shimura curves associated to the quaternion algebras with discriminants $6$ and $10$ are Borcherds lifts of vector-valued modular forms. This property is then used to explicitly compute the rational norms of singular moduli on these curves. This method not only verifies conjectural values for the rational CM points, but also provides a way of algebraically calculating the norms of CM points with arbitrarily large negative discriminant.

In this paper we study the supersingular locus of the reduction modulo $p$ of the Shimura variety for $GU(1,s)$ in the case of an inert prime $p$. Using Dieudonné theory we define a stratification of the corresponding moduli space of $p$-divisible groups. We describe the incidence relation of this stratification in terms of the Bruhat--Tits building of a unitary group. In the case of $GU(1,2)$, we show that the supersingular locus is equidimensional of dimension 1 and is of complete intersection. We give an explicit description of the irreducible components and their intersection behaviour.

The theorems of Gross--Zagier and Zhang relate the N\'eron--Tate heights of complex multiplication points on the modular curve $X_0(N)$ (and on Shimura curve analogues) with the central derivatives of automorphic $L$-function. We extend these results to include certain CM points on modular curves of the form $X(\Gamma_0(M)\cap\Gamma_1(S))$ (and on Shimura curve analogues). These results are motivated by applications to Hida theory that can be found in the companion article "Central derivatives of $L$-functions in Hida families", Math.\ Ann.\ \textbf{399}(2007), 803--818.

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.