arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Vladimir Dokchitser.
We investigate how various invariants of elliptic curves, such as the discriminant, Kodaira type, Tamagawa number and real and complex periods, change under an isogeny of prime degree p. For elliptic curves over l-adic fields, the classification is almost complete (the exception is wild potentially supersingular reduction when l=p), and is summarised in a table.
We remark that Tate's algorithm to determine the minimal model of an elliptic curve can be stated in a way that characterises Kodaira types from the minimum of v(a_i)/i. As an application, we deduce the behaviour of Kodaira types in tame extensions of local fields.
We study the growth of the Tate-Shafarevich and p-infinity Selmer groups for isogenous abelian varieties in towers of number fields, with an emphasis on elliptic curves. The growth types are usually exponential, as in the setting of `positive mu-invariant' in Iwasawa theory of elliptic curves. The towers we consider are p-adic and l-adic Lie extensions for l<>p, in particular cyclotomic and other Z_l-extensions.
We show that a Frobenius-semisimple Weil representation over a local field K is determined by its Euler factors over the extensions of K. The construction is explicit, and we illustrate it for l-adic representations attached to elliptic and genus 2 curves. As an application, we construct an absolutely simple 2-dimensional abelian variety over Q all of whose quadratic twists must have positive rank, according to the Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.
For an elliptic curve E over Q, the Galois action on the l-power torsion points defines representations whose images are subgroups of GL_2(Z/l^n Z). There are three exceptional prime powers l^n=2,3,4 when surjectivity of the mod l^n representation does not imply that for l^(n+1). Elliptic curves with surjective mod 3 but not mod 9 representation have been classified by Elkies. The purpose of this note is to do this in the other two cases.
We present a method to determine Frobenius elements in arbitrary Galois extensions of global fields, which may be seen as a generalisation of Euler's criterion. It is a part of the general question how to compare splitting fields and identify conjugacy classes in Galois groups, that we will discuss as well.
Conjecturally, the parity of the Mordell-Weil rank of an elliptic curve over a number field K is determined by its root number. The root number is a product of local root numbers, so the rank modulo 2 is conjecturally the sum over all places of K of a function of elliptic curves over local fields. This note shows that there can be no analogue for the rank modulo 3, 4 or 5, or for the rank itself. In fact, standard conjectures for elliptic curves imply that there is no analogue modulo n for any n>2, so this is purely a parity phenomenon.
The purpose of the paper is to complete several global and local results concerning parity of ranks of elliptic curves. Primarily, we show that the Shafarevich-Tate conjecture implies the parity conjecture for all elliptic curves over number fields, give a formula for local and global root numbers of elliptic curves and complete the proof of a conjecture of Kramer and Tunnell in characteristic 0. The method is to settle the outstanding local formulae by deforming from local fields to totally real number fields and then using global parity results.
The p-parity conjecture for twists of elliptic curves relates multiplicities of Artin representations in p-infinity Selmer groups to root numbers. In this paper we prove this conjecture for a class of such twists. For example, if E/Q is semistable at 2 and 3, K/Q is abelian and K^\infty is its maximal pro-p extension, then the p-parity conjecture holds for twists of E by all orthogonal Artin representations of Gal(K^\infty/Q). We also give analogous results when K/Q is non-abelian, the base field is not Q and E is replaced by an abelian variety. The heart of the paper is a study of relations between permutation representations of finite groups, their "regulator constants", and compatibility between local root numbers and local Tamagawa numbers of abelian varieties in such relations.
We observe that there are elliptic curves over number fields all of whose quadratic twists must have positive rank, assuming the Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture. We give a classification of such curves in terms of their local behaviour, and characterise them in terms of the Galois action on the Tate module. In particular, their existence shows that Goldfeld's conjecture does not extend directly to elliptic curves over number fields.
Let A be an abelian variety over a number field K. An identity between the L-functions L(A/K_i,s) for extensions K_i of K induces a conjectural relation between the Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer quotients. We prove these relations modulo finiteness of Sha, and give an analogous statement for Selmer groups. Based on this, we develop a method for determining the parity of various combinations of ranks of A over extensions of K. As one of the applications, we establish the parity conjecture for elliptic curves assuming finiteness of Sha[6^\infty] and some restrictions on the reduction at primes above 2 and 3: the parity of the Mordell-Weil rank of E/K agrees with the parity of the analytic rank, as determined by the root number. We also prove the p-parity conjecture for all elliptic curves over Q and all primes p: the parities of the p^\infty-Selmer rank and the analytic rank agree.
The first part of the paper gives a new proof of self-duality for Selmer groups: if A is an abelian variety over a number field K, and F/K is a Galois extension with Galois group G, then the Q_pG-representation naturally associated to the p-infinity Selmer group of A/F is self-dual. The second part describes a method for obtaining information about parities of Selmer ranks from the local Tamagawa numbers of A in intermediate extensions of F/K.
Let E be an elliptic curve defined over a number field K. Michael Larsen conjectured that for any finitely generated subgroup G of Gal(\bar K/K), the Mordell-Weil rank of E is unbounded in number fields fixed by G. We prove that the conjecture holds over K=Q for both the analytic rank and the p-infinity Selmer rank of E for every odd prime p. For arbitrary E/K, we show that Larsen's conjecture follows from the standard conjectures for ranks of elliptic curves, provided K has a real place or E has non-integral j-invariant.
Let E be an elliptic curve over a number field K which admits a cyclic p-isogeny with p odd and semistable at primes above p. We determine the root number and the parity of the p-Selmer rank for E/K, in particular confirming the parity conjecture for such curves. We prove the analogous results for p=2 under the additional assumption that E is not supersingular at primes above 2.
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve over $Q$, and $τ$ an Artin representation over $Q$ that factors through the non-abelian extension $Q(\sqrt[p^n]{m},μ_{p^n})/Q$, where $p$ is an odd prime and $n,m$ are positive integers. We show that $L(E,τ,1)$, the special value at $s=1$ of the $L$-function of the twist of $E$ by $τ$, divided by the classical transcendental period $Ω_{+}^{d^+}|Ω_{-}^{d^-}|ε(τ)$ is algebraic and Galois-equivariant, as predicted by Deligne's conjecture.
We study special values of L-functions of elliptic curves over Q twisted by Artin representations that factor through a false Tate curve extension $Q(μ_p^\infty,\sqrt[p^\infty]{m})/Q$. In this setting, we explain how to compute L-functions and the corresponding Iwasawa-theoretic invariants of non-abelian twists of elliptic curves. Our results provide both theoretical and computational evidence for the main conjecture of non-commutative Iwasawa theory.