The yoga of the Cassels-Tate pairing
Cassels has described a pairing on the 2-Selmer group of an elliptic curve which shares some properties with the Cassels-Tate pairing. In this article, we prove that the two pairings are the same.
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arXiv subjects
Michael Stoll
Publications and source records attributed to Michael Stoll.
Magnetic trapping of buffer-gas cooled chromium atoms and prospects for the extension to paramagnetic molecules
We report the successful buffer-gas cooling and magnetic trapping of chromium atoms with densities exceeding $10^{12}$ atoms per cm$^{3}$ at a temperature of 350 mK for the trapped sample. The possibilities to extend the method to buffer-gas cool and magnetically trap molecules are discussed. To minimize the most important loss mechanism in magnetic trapping, molecules with a small spin-spin interaction and a large rotational constant are preferred. Both the CrH ($^6Σ^+$ ground state) and MnH ($^7Σ^+$) radicals appear to be suitable systems for future experiments.
physics.atom-ph↗
Descent on elliptic curves
Let E be an elliptic curve over Q (or, more generally, a number field). Then on the one hand, we have the finitely generated abelian group E(Q), on the other hand, there is the Shafarevich-Tate group Sha(Q,E). Descent is a general method of getting information on both of these objects - ideally complete information on the Mordell-Weil group E(Q), and usually partial information on Sha(Q,E). What descent does is to compute (for a given n > 1) the n-Selmer group Sel^(n)(Q,E); it sits in an exact sequence 0 --> E(Q)/nE(Q) --> Sel^(n)(Q,E) --> Sha(Q,E)[n] --> 0 and thus contains combined information on E(Q) and Sha(Q,E). The main problem I want to discuss in this ``short course'' is how to actually do this explicitly, with some emphasis on obtaining representations of the elements of the Selmer group as explicit covering spaces of E. These explicit representations are useful in two respects - they allow a search for rational points (if successful, this proves that the element is in the image of the left hand map above), and they provide the starting point for performing ``higher'' descents (e.g., extending a p-descent computation to a p^2-descent computation).
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Explicit n-descent on elliptic curves, II. Geometry
This is the second in a series of papers in which we study the n-Selmer group of an elliptic curve. In this paper, we show how to realize elements of the n-Selmer group explicitly as curves of degree n embedded in P^{n-1}. The main tool we use is a comparison between an easily obtained embedding into P^{n^2-1} and another map into P^{n^2-1} that factors through the Segre embedding P^{n-1} x P^{n-1} --> P^{n^2-1}. The comparison relies on an explicit version of the local-to-global principle for the n-torsion of the Brauer group of the base field.
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Explicit n-descent on elliptic curves, I. Algebra
This is the first in a series of papers in which we study the n-Selmer group of an elliptic curve, with the aim of representing its elements as genus one normal curves of degree n. The methods we describe are practical in the case n=3 for elliptic curves over the rationals, and have been implemented in Magma.
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Deciding existence of rational points on curves: an experiment
We consider all genus 2 curves over Q given by an equation y^2 = f(x) with f a squarefree polynomial of degree 5 or 6, with integral coefficients of absolute value at most 3. For each of these roughly 200000 isomorphism classes of curves, we decide if there is a rational point on the curve or not, by a combination of techniques. For a small number of curves, our result is conditional on the BSD conjecture or on GRH.
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On the number of rational squares at fixed distance from a fifth power
The main result of this note is that there are at most seven rational points (including the one at infinity) on the curve C_A with the affine equation y^2 = x^5 + A (where A is a tenth power free integer) when the Mordell-Weil rank of the Jacobian of C_A is one. This bound is attained for A = 18^2.
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Independence of rational points on twists of a given curve
In this paper, we study bounds for the number of rational points on twists C' of a fixed curve C over a number field K, under the condition that the group of K-rational points on the Jacobian J' of C' has rank smaller than the genus of C'. The main result is that with some explicitly given finitely many possible exceptions, we have a bound of the form 2r + c, where r is the rank of J'(K) and c is a constant depending on C. For the proof, we use a refinement of the method of Chabauty-Coleman; the main new ingredient is to use it for an extension field of K_v, where v is a place of bad reduction for C'.
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An Introduction to Conway's Games and Numbers
This is an introduction into John Conway's beautiful Combinatorial Game Theory, providing precise statements and detailed proofs for the fundamental parts of his theory. (1) Combinatorial game theory, (2) the GROUP of games, (3) the FIELD of numbers, (4) ordinal numbers, (5) games and numbers, (6) infinitesimal games, (7) impartial games.
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Twists of X(7) and primitive solutions to x^2+y^3=z^7
We find the primitive integer solutions to x^2+y^3=z^7. A nonabelian descent argument involving the simple group of order 168 reduces the problem to the determination of the set of rational points on a finite set of twists of the Klein quartic curve X. To restrict the set of relevant twists, we exploit the isomorphism between X and the modular curve X(7), and use modularity of elliptic curves and level lowering. This leaves 10 genus-3 curves, whose rational points are found by a combination of methods.
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The Cassels-Tate pairing on polarized abelian varieties
Let (A,λ) be a principally polarized abelian variety defined over a global field k, and let \Sha(A) be its Shafarevich-Tate group. Let \Sha(A)_\nd denote the quotient of \Sha(A) by its maximal divisible subgroup. Cassels and Tate constructed a nondegenerate pairing \Sha(A)_\nd \times \Sha(A)_\nd \rightarrow \Q/\Z. If A is an elliptic curve, then by a result of Cassels the pairing is alternating. But in general it is only antisymmetric. Using some new but equivalent definitions of the pairing, we derive general criteria deciding whether it is alternating and whether there exists some alternating nondegenerate pairing on \Sha(A)_\nd. These criteria are expressed in terms of an element c \in \Sha(A)_\nd that is canonically associated to the polarization λ. In the case that A is the Jacobian of some curve, a down-to-earth version of the result allows us to determine effectively whether \#\Sha(A) (if finite) is a square or twice a square. We then apply this to prove that a positive proportion (in some precise sense) of all hyperelliptic curves of even genus g \ge 2 over \Q have a Jacobian with nonsquare \#\Sha (if finite). For example, it appears that this density is about 13% for curves of genus 2. The proof makes use of a general result relating global and local densities; this result can be applied in other situations.
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