Modular abelian varieties over number fields

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 zeta function L(B/K; s) is equivalent to the product of zeta functions of non-CM newforms for congruence subgroups Γ1(N). The characterization involves the structure of 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, we show how to find nontrivial examples of strongly modular varieties by twisting, and prove the existence of strongly modular surfaces satisfying certain properties.