Asymptotically fast group operations on Jacobians of general curves

Let be a curve of genus over a field . We describe probabilistic algorithms for addition and inversion of the classes of rational divisors in the Jacobian of . After a precomputation, which is done only once for the curve , the algorithms use only linear algebra in vector spaces of dimension at most , and so take field operations in , using Gaussian elimination. Using fast algorithms for the linear algebra, one can improve this time to . This represents a significant improvement over the previous record of field operations (also after a precomputation) for general curves of genus .