The generalized Verschiebung map for curves of genus 2

Let C be a smooth curve, and M _r (C) the coarse moduli space of vector bundles of rank r and trivial determinant on C. We examine the generalized Verschiebung map induced by pulling back under Frobenius. Our main result is a computation of the degree of V ₂ for a general C of genus 2, in characteristic p > 2. We also give several general background results on the Verschiebung in an appendix.This paper was partially supported by fellowships from the National Science Foundation and Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences.