Constructing Picard curves with complex multiplication using the Chinese Remainder Theorem

We give a new algorithm for constructing Picard curves over a finite field with a given endomorphism ring. This has important applications in cryptography since curves of genus 3 allow for smaller key sizes than elliptic curves. For a sextic CM-field $K$ containing the cube roots of unity, we define and compute certain class polynomials modulo small primes and then use the Chinese Remainder Theorem to construct the class polynomials over the rationals. We also give some examples.