Varieties via their L-functions

We describe a procedure for determining the existence, or non-existence, of an algebraic variety of a given conductor via an analytic calculation involving L-functions. The procedure assumes that the Hasse-Weil L-function of the variety satisfies its conjectured functional equation, but there is no assumption of an associated automorphic object or Galois representation. We demonstrate the method by finding the Hasse-Weil L-functions of all hyperelliptic curves of conductor less than 500.