Faltings's theorem on rational points on subvarieties of abelian varieties can be used to show that al but finitely many algebraic points on a curve arise in families parametrized by $\mathbb{P}^{1}$ or positive rank abelian varieties, we call these finitely many exceptions isolated points. We study how isolated points behave under morphisms and then specialize to the case of modular curves. We show that isolated points on $X_{1}(n)$ push down to isolated points on aj only on the $j$-invariant of the isolated point.
This is joint work with A. Bourdon, O. Ejder, Y. Liu, and F. Odumodu.[-]

The Ceresa class is the image under a cycle class map of a canonical algebraic cycle associated to a curve in its Jacobian. This class vanishes for all hyperelliptic curves, and is known to be non-vanishing for the generic curve of genus at least 3. It is necessary for the Ceresa class to have infinite order for the Galois action on the fundamental group of a curve to have big image. We will present an algorithm for certifying that a curve over a number field has infinite order Ceresa class.

N.B. This is preliminary joint work with Jordan Ellenberg, Adam Logan and Akshay Venkatesh.[-]

Let $A$ be an abelian variety over a number field. The connected monodromy field of $A$ is the minimal field over which the image of the $l$-adic torsion representations have connected Zariski closure. We show that for all even $g \geq 4$, there exist infinitely many geometrically nonisogenous abelian varieties $A$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ of dimension $g$ where the connected monodromy field is strictly larger than the field of definition of the endomorphisms of $A$. Our construction arises from explicit families of hyperelliptic Jacobians with definite quaternionic multiplication. This is joint work with Victoria Cantoral-Farfan and Davide Lombardo.[-]