On the second successive minimum of the Jacobian of a Riemann surface

To a compact Riemann surface of genus g can be assigned a principally polarized abelian variety (PPAV) of dimension g, the Jacobian of the Riemann surface. The Schottky problem is to discern the Jacobians among the PPAVs. Buser and Sarnak showed that the square of the first successive minimum, the squared norm of the shortest non-zero vector in the lattice of a Jacobian of a Riemann surface of genus g is bounded from above by log(4g), whereas it can be of order g for the lattice of a PPAV of dimension g. We show that in the case of a hyperelliptic surface this geometric invariant is bounded from above by a constant and that for any surface of genus g the square of the second successive minimum is equally of order log(g). We obtain improved bounds for the kth successive minimum of the Jacobian, if the surface contains small simple closed geodesics.