arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Tom Fisher.
We show that every pair of 2-torsion elements in the Tate-Shafarevich group of an elliptic curve are visible in the same abelian surface. This was previously only known for a single 2-torsion element. Our result explains some of the original observations on visibility in the paper of Cremona and Mazur.
An important problem in computational arithmetic geometry is to find changes of coordinates to simplify a system of polynomial equations with rational coefficients. This is tackled by a combination of two techniques, called minimisation and reduction. We give an algorithm for minimising certain pairs of quadratic forms, subject to the constraint that the first quadratic form is fixed. This has applications to 2-descent on the Jacobian of a genus 2 curve.
We describe a method for computing the Cassels-Tate pairing on the 2-Selmer group of the Jacobian of a genus 2 curve. This can be used to improve the upper bound coming from 2-descent for the rank of the group of rational points on the Jacobian. Our method remains practical regardless of the Galois action on the Weierstrass points of the genus 2 curve. It does however depend on being able to find a rational point on a certain twisted Kummer surface. The latter does not appear to be a severe restriction in practice. In particular, we have used our method to unconditionally determine the ranks of all genus 2 Jacobians in the L-functions and modular forms database (LMFDB).
We investigate the probability that a random quadratic form in ${\mathbb{Z}}[x_1,...,x_n]$ has a totally isotropic subspace of a given dimension. We show that this global probability is a product of local probabilities. Our main result computes these local probabilities for quadratic forms over the $p$-adics. The formulae we obtain are rational functions in $p$ invariant upon substituting $p \mapsto 1/p$.
We use the invariant theory of binary quartics to give a new formula for the Cassels-Tate pairing on the $2$-Selmer group of an elliptic curve. Unlike earlier methods, our formula does not require us to solve any conics. An important role in our construction is played by a certain $K3$ surface defined by a $(2,2,2)$-form.
We show how the minimal free resolution of a set of $n$ points in general position in projective space of dimension $n-2$ explicitly determines structure constants for a ring of rank $n$. This generalises previously known constructions of Levi-Delone-Faddeev and Bhargava in the cases $n=3,4,5$.
We compute explicit equations for the surfaces Z(17,1) and Z(17,3) parametrising pairs of $17$-congruent elliptic curves. We find that each is a double cover of the same elliptic K3-surface. We use these equations to exhibit the first non-trivial example of a pair of symplectically 17-congruent elliptic curves over the rationals. We also compute the corresponding genus 2 curve whose Jacobian has a $(17,17)$-splitting.
We determine the probability that a random polynomial of degree $n$ over $\mathbb{Z}_p$ has exactly $r$ roots in $\mathbb{Q}_p$, and show that it is given by a rational function of $p$ that is invariant under replacing $p$ by $1/p$.
We prove that a positive proportion of hypersurfaces in products of projective spaces over $\mathbb{Q}$ are everywhere locally soluble, for almost all multidegrees and dimensions, as a generalization of a theorem of Poonen and Voloch. We also study the specific case of genus $1$ curves in $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1$ defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, represented as bidegree $(2,2)$-forms, and show that the proportion of everywhere locally soluble such curves is approximately $87.4\%$. The proportion of these curves in $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1$ soluble over $\mathbb{Q}_p$ is a rational function of $p$ for each finite prime $p$. Finally, we include some experimental data on the Hasse principle for these curves.
We consider the proportion of genus one curves over $\mathbb{Q}$ of the form $z^2=f(x,y)$ where $f(x,y)\in\mathbb{Z}[x,y]$ is a binary quartic form (or more generally of the form $z^2+h(x,y)z=f(x,y)$ where also $h(x,y)\in\mathbb{Z}[x,y]$ is a binary quadratic form) that have points everywhere locally. We show that the proportion of these curves that are locally soluble, computed as a product of local densities, is approximately 75.96%. We prove that the local density at a prime $p$ is given by a fixed degree-$9$ rational function of $p$ for all odd $p$ (and for the generalised equation, the same rational function gives the local density at every prime). An additional analysis is carried out to estimate rigorously the local density at the real place.
We compute twists of the modular curve $X(13)$ that parametrise the elliptic curves 13-congruent to a given elliptic curve. Searching for rational points on these twists enables us to find non-trivial pairs of 13-congruent elliptic curves over ${\mathbb Q}$, i.e. pairs of non-isogenous elliptic curves over ${\mathbb Q}$ whose 13-torsion subgroups are isomorphic as Galois modules. We also find equations for the surfaces parametrising pairs of 13-congruent elliptic curves. There are two such surfaces, corresponding to 13-congruences that do, or do not, respect the Weil pairing. We write each as a double cover of the projective plane ramified over a highly singular model for Baran's modular curve of level 13. By finding suitable rational curves on these surfaces, we show that there are infinitely many non-trivial pairs of 13-congruent elliptic curves over ${\mathbb Q}$.
We determine explicit birational models over Q for the modular surfaces parametrising pairs of N-congruent elliptic curves in all cases where this surface is an elliptic surface. In each case we also determine the rank of the Mordell-Weil lattice and the geometric Picard number.
We explain a method for computing the Cassels-Tate pairing on the 3-isogeny Selmer groups of an elliptic curve. This improves the upper bound on the rank of the elliptic curve coming from a descent by 3-isogeny, to that coming from a full 3-descent. One ingredient of our work is a new algorithm for solving cubic norm equations, that avoids the need for any S-unit computations. As an application, we show that the elliptic curves with torsion subgroup of order 3 and rank at least 13, found by Eroshkin, have rank exactly 13.
Haile, Han and Kuo have studied certain non-commutative algebras associated to a binary quartic or ternary cubic form. We extend their construction to pairs of quadratic forms in four variables, and conjecture a further generalisation to genus one curves of arbitrary degree. These constructions give an explicit realisation of an isomorphism relating the Weil-Chatelet and Brauer groups of an elliptic curve.
We extend the work of Cremona, Fisher and Stoll on minimising genus one curves of degrees 2,3,4,5, to some of the other representations associated to genus one curves, as studied by Bhargava and Ho. Specifically we describe algorithms for minimising bidegree (2,2)-forms, 3 x 3 x 3 cubes and 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 hypercubes. We also prove a theorem relating the minimal discriminant to that of the Jacobian elliptic curve.
Let $C$ be a $4$-cover of an elliptic curve $E$, written as a quadric intersection in $\mathbb{P}^3$. Let $E'$ be another elliptic curve with $4$-torsion isomorphic to that of $E$. We show how to write down the $4$-cover $C'$ of $E'$ with the property that $C$ and $C'$ are represented by the same cohomology class on the $4$-torsion. In fact we give equations for $C'$ as a curve of degree $8$ in $\mathbb{P}^5$. We also study the K3-surfaces fibred by the curves $C'$ as we vary $E'$. In particular we show how to write down models for these surfaces as complete intersections of quadrics in $\mathbb{P}^5$ with exactly $16$ singular points. This allows us to give examples of elliptic curves over $\mathbb{Q}$ that have elements of order $4$ in their Tate-Shafarevich group that are not visible in a principally polarized abelian surface.
We extend the formulae of classical invariant theory for the Jacobian of a genus one curve of degree $n \le 4$ to curves of arbitrary degree. To do this, we associate to each genus one normal curve of degree $n$, an $n \times n$ alternating matrix of quadratic forms in $n$ variables, that represents the invariant differential. We then exhibit the invariants we need as homogeneous polynomials of degrees $4$ and $6$ in the coefficients of the entries of this matrix.
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve over a number field $K$. Descent calculations on $E$ can be used to find upper bounds for the rank of the Mordell-Weil group, and to compute covering curves that assist in the search for generators of this group. The general method of 4-descent, developed in the PhD theses of Siksek, Womack and Stamminger, has been implemented in Magma (when $K={\mathbb Q}$) and works well for elliptic curves with sufficiently small discriminant. By extending work of Bremner and Cassels, we describe the improvements that can be made when $E$ has a rational 2-torsion point. In particular, when $E$ has full rational 2-torsion, we describe a method for 8-descent that is practical for elliptic curves $E/{\mathbb Q}$ with large discriminant.