J
OURNAL DE
T
HÉORIE DES
N
OMBRES DE
B
ORDEAUX
L
OÏC
M
EREL
Arithmetic of elliptic curves and diophantine equations
Journal de Théorie des Nombres de Bordeaux, tome
11, n
o1 (1999),
p. 173-200
<http://www.numdam.org/item?id=JTNB_1999__11_1_173_0>
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Article numérisé dans le cadre du programme Numérisation de documents anciens mathématiques
Arithmetic of
elliptic
curvesand
diophantine
equations
par Loïc MEREL
RÉSUMÉ. Nous décrivons un panorama des méthodes reliant l’étu-de l’étu-des équations
diophantiennes
ternaires auxtechniques
mo-dernes issues de la théorie des formes modulaires.ABSTRACT. We
give
a survey of methods used to connect thestudy
of ternarydiophantine
equations to moderntechniques
com-ing
from thetheory
of modular forms.INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
In
1952,
P.Denes,
fromBudapest
1,
conjectured
that three non-zerodistinct n-th powers can not be in arithmetic
progression
when n > 2[15],
i. e. that theequation
has no solution in
integers x,
y, z, n~y,
and n > 2. One cannotfail to notice that it is a variant of the Fermat-Wiles theorem. We would
like to
present
the ideas which led H. Darmon and the author to the solution of Dénes’problem
in[13].
Many
of them are those(due
to Y.Hellegouarch,
G.
Frey,
J.-P.Serre,
B.Mazur,
K.Ribet,
A.Wiles,
R.Taylor,
...)
which ledto the celebrated
proof
of Fermat’s last theorem. Othersoriginate
in earlier work of Darmon(and Ribet).
The
proof
of Fermat’s last theorem can be understood as an advance inthe direction of the abc
conjecture
of D. Masser and J. Oesterlé. We viewthe solution to Denes’
conjecture
as a modest further step. We would liketo
explain
the additionaltechniques
involved into this solution(and
try toavoid too much
overlap
with the numerous other surveys onclosely
relatedtopics) .
1 Ce texte est la version 6crite de 1’expose donne lors du deuxième colloque de la societe
mathématique europeenne a Budapest. A la grande surprise de 1’auteur, il ne figurait pas dans les volumes publics a cette occasion par Birkhafser Verlag, lorsque ceux-ci sont apparus sur les rayons des librairies. Suite a mon expos6 sur le meme theme aux Journées Arithm6tiques, les
6diteurs du pr6sent volume ont accept6 de publier 1’article en d6pit de de la nature plus sp6cialis6e
A current
approach
todiophantine problems
can beroughly
described asfollows. One is interested in
problems
of thefollowing
type.
I. Determination of the solutions to a
diophantine equation
of the form a+b+c=0.Using
amachinery
proposed
by
Hellegouarch, Frey
andSerre,
and estab-lishedby
theorems ofMazur,
Ribet and Wiles(and
later refinementsby
F.Diamond and K.
Kramer)
theproblem
Imight
be reduced toproblems
inthe
following
theme.II. The action of
Gal(Q/Q)
on a few torsionpoints
of anelliptic
curveover Q
characterizes theisogeny
class of the curve. oralternately
II’. same
problem
restricted to a certain class ofelliptic
curves(see
section1.1)
over Q
often calledFrey
curves.The
problem
II and II’ can be reformulated in terms of inexistence ofrational
points
on modular curves(or
generalized
modularobjects).
Thisinexistence can sometimes be established
using
somealgebraic
geometry
and,
roughly speaking,
III. a
diophantine
argument
coming
from thestudy
of the Galoiscoho-mology
of some modularobject.
We illustrate this process
by examples
arranged
inincreasing
order ofdifficulty.
Fermat’s last Theorem.
According
to ourpicture,
theproof
of Wiles’ theoremdecomposes
asfollows. Fermat’s Last Theorem is our
problem
oftype
I:Theorem 0.1
(Wiles).
Theequation
xP +yP
= zP has no solution ingers x, y and z with p
prime
number > 3 andxyz =1=
0. The modularmachinery
reduces it to aproblem
oftype
II:Theorem 0.2
(Mazur).
Anelliptic
curveover Q
has noQ-rational
sub-groupof prime
order p > 163.Weaker versions of
type
II’ of theprevious
theorem are sufficient for theapplication
to Fermat’s Last Theorem:Theorem 0.3
(Mazur).
AFrey
curve has noQ-rational
subgroup. of
prime
order p > 3
(the
inexistenceof Q-rational points of prime
order p > 3 onThe
previous
two theorems of Mazurrely
in an essential way on thefollowing
result oftype
III:Theorem 0.4
(Mazur).
The Eisensteinquotient
of
theJacobian of
the mo-dular curveXo(p)
has,finitely
manyQ-rational
points.
D6nes’
equation.
D6nes’
conjecture
has beenproved
for n = 4by
Euler,
for n = 3by
Legendre,
for n = 5by Dirichlet,
and for n =p
prime
with p 31by
Deneshimself
using
the methods of Kummer.The
problem
was reconsideredby
Ribet[63]
recently
in thelight
of theproof
of Fermat’s last theorem: D6nes’equation
can not have any non-trivial solution when n =p is a
prime
congruent
to 1 modulo 4(see below).
Darmon and the authorproved
thefollowing
theorem oftype
I.Theorem 0.5. The
equation
xP +yP
= 2zP has no solution inintegers
x, y and z with pprime
2,
and x 0
±y.
Using
the modularmachinery
we reduced first theproblem
to apositice
answer to thefollowing problem
oftype
II.Problem 0.6
(Serre).
Does there exists a numbers B > 0 such thatfor
every every
elliptic
curve Eover Q
withoutcomplex multiplication
and everyprime
number p > B anyautomorphism
of
the groupof
points
of
p-division
of
E isgiven by
the actionof
an elementsof
Gal(Q/Q)?
We
proved
a result oftype
II’ in the direction of apositive
answer to thatquestion.
This result is sufficient for theapplication
to D6nes’conjecture.
Theorem 0.7. For every
Frey
curve Eexcept
the one which hascomplex
rraultiplication
and everyprime
number p > 3 anyautomorphism of
the groupof
points
of
p-division
of
E isgiven
by
the actionof
an elementof
Gal(Q/Q)
-We obtain this result as a consequence of a theorem of
type
III,
which isa
special
case of theconjecture
of Birch andSwinnerton-Dyer
(see
section2.3.).
Theorem 0.8
(Kolyvagin
andothers).
Any quotients
defined
of
thejacobian
of
a modular curve whoseL-function
does not vanish at thepoint
1 has
finitely
manyQ-rational points.
Concerning
Serre’sproblem
in fullgenerality
we can offeronly
wishfulthinking
for reasonsexplained
in section 2.4: Onemight hope
to use asargument
III more results in the direction of theconjecture
of Birch andSwinnerton-Dyer
such as theGross-Zagier
formula and the theorem ofThe Generalized Fermat
equation.
Fermat’s Last Theorem and Dénes’
conjecture
areessentially
special
casesof the
following
problem
oftype
II.Conjecture
0.9. Let a, b and c be three non-zerointegers.
One has theequality
axn +byn
+ = 0for only finitely
many values
of
yn,
z’~)
where x, y, z, and n > 3 are
integers
and x, y, and z arecoprime.
See
[26]
for morebackground
on thisproblem.
Observe that in the casewhere a + b + c =
0,
theequation
has solution in(x, y, z)
for anyexponent
n. Thisdifficulty
appearsalready
in Dénes’equation.
Mazur
proved
thatconjecture
0.9 holds when a = b = 1 and c is a powerof an odd
prime
number I which is not a Fermatprime
or a Mersenneprime
[66].
A. Kraus seems to have foundrecently explicit
bounds for the solutionsin terms of 1
[40].
Frey proved
that theconjecture
0.9 is a consequence of aconjecture
oftype
II.(Questions
of thistype
were raisedby
Mazur in[50].)
Conjecture
0.10(Frey).
Let E be anelliptic
curve overQ.
There exists.finitely
manypairs
(E’, p)
where E’ is anelliptic
curveover Q
and p aprime
number > 5 such that the setsof
p-division points
of
E and E’ areisomorphic as
Gal (Q/Q) -modules.
Frey
even shows([24],
[25])
that theconjecture
0.9 isequivalent
to therestriction to
Frey
curves of theconjecture
0.10.Darmon
conjectures
that there existonly finitely
manytriples
(E, E’, p)
as in
conjecture
0.10 with E and E’non-isogenous
and p > 5.No
argument
oftype
III seems to be available to solve theconjecture
0.10. One can
only hope
that the Birch andSwinnerton-Dyer
conjecture
isstill relevant to the
study
of the arithmetic of twisted modular curves andtheir
jacobian.
The Generalized Fermat-Catalan
equation.
Here is another well-known
generalization
of Fermat’sequation.
Conjecture
0.11.Let a,
b and c be three non-zerointegers.
One has theequality
axr +bys
+czt
= 0for
only
finitely
many valuesof
(xr,
ys, zt)
withx, y, z, r, s, and t
integers,
x, y, zcoprime,
xyz =,4
0,
and 1 + s + t
1. The abcconjecture
easily implies
conjecture
0.11. For a = b = -c =1,
the
conjecture
0.11 is sometimes called the Fermat-Catalanconjecture
since it combines Fermat’s theorem with the Catalanconjecture;
The ten knowntriple
(xr,
ys,
zt)
whichsatisfy
theequality
xr +ys
=zt
are listed in[3].
In the direction of the Generalized Fermat-Catalan
conjecture,
we have thefollowing
two results. The first is obtained as anapplication
ofFaltings’
Theorem 0.12
(Darmon, Granville).
Letr, s and t
be threepositive
inte-gers suchthat -1 + ~ + 1
1. Let a,b,
c be three non-zerointegers.
Thenthe
equation
axr +bys
=czt
hasfinitely
many solutions in
coprime integers
x, y and z.
Moreover the
techniques
developped
by
Darmon and the author tostudy
Denes’
conjecture
combined with earlier workby
Darmon[8]
led us to thefollowing
[13]:
Theorem
0.13. 1)
Let n be aninteger >
3. Theequation xn + yn
= z2
has no solution incoprime
and non-zerointegers
x, y, z.2)
Suppose
that everyelliptic
curveover Q
is modular. Let n be aninteger >
2. Then theequation
xn+ yn
=Z3
has no solution incoprime
and non-zero
integers
x, y, z.The
study
of theseequations
has somehistory.
For instance the casen = 4 in the first
equation
was solvedby
Fermat and the case n = 3 inthe second
equation
was solvedby
Euler. We relied on work of B. Poonento solve these
equations by elementary
methods for a few small values of n[62].
There is a considerable
bibliography
on thesubject
ofdiophantine
equa-tions of this
type.
We are very far frombeing
complete
here. The interestedreader
might
consult[10], [12], [18],
and[53].
The abcconjecture.
We recall its statement for the convenience of the reader
[59].
Conjecture
0.14(Masser-Oesterle).
For every real number E > 0 thereexists a real
KE
> 0 such thatfor
everytriple
of
coprime
non-zerointegers
(a,
b,
c)
satisfying
a + b + c = 0 we have thefollowing
inequaLity:
ibl, icl)
where
Rad(n)
for
anyinteger n
is theproduct
of
theprime
numbersdividing
n.The abc
conjecture
illustrates(and
maybe
concentrates)
thedifficulty
ofunderstanding
how the additive andmultiplicative
structures of theintegers
relate.
Its resolution would affect our
understanding
of manyproblems
in numbertheory
([51],
[58], [76]).
As
explained
in[25]
(see
also[44], [73]
and[74]),
it is now a consequence of thefollowing
degree conjectures,
which is aproblem
oftype
II:Conjecture
0.15. Let E be a modielarelliptic
curveover Q
of
conductorN. Let
6E
be thedegree
of the
corresponding
minirraal modularindependent of
E such that one hasRemark that this is no
longer
auniformity
statement since thedegree
6E
isexpected
to be boundedby
a numberdepending
on the conductor ofE. This
problem
isapparently
related to the existence of rationalpoints
oncertain Hilbert modular varieties.
This paper is
organized
to be accessible to a wide audience in its firstpart
whichexplains
the process ofgoing
fromproblem
I toproblem
II. The secondpart
might
contain results of interest to thespecialist
(see
sections2.4 and
2.5)
and dealsmainly
with Serre’sproblem.
In the third part weexplain
how thedegree
conjecture
can be studied from anelementary
point
of view.
Acknowledgement.
I would like to thank H.Darmon,
B.Edixhoven,
I.Chen,
and K. Ribet for comments useful in the course of
writing
this paperduring
my
stay
at theUniversity
ofCalifornia,
Berkeley.
1. THE MODULAR MACHINERY
1.1. The curves of
Frey
andHellegouarch.
In order tostudy
equations
of the
type
a + b + c =0,
witha, b
and ccoprime
non-zerointegers,
Frey,
following
earlier workby
Hellegouarch
about Fermat’sequation
(~30~, [31]),
proposed
to consider theelliptic
curveEa,b,c
over Q given
by
the cubicequation
We can assume without loss of
generality
that b is even and that a iscongruent
to -1 modulo 4. We callelliptic
curvesgiven by
cubicequations
of this form
Frey
curves.Elementary
factsconcerning
them can be found invarious
places
of the literature([22],
~23~, [67], [59]).
The modular invariantof
Ea,b,c
isgiven
by
the formulaIn is not
integral
(and Ea,b,c
has nocomplex
multiplica-tion)
except in the case(a, b, c) = (-1, 2, -1).
All the 2-division
points
ofEa,b,c
areQ-rational.
The exact formula for the conductorNa,b,c
ofEa,b,c
has been calculatedby
Diamond and Kramer[17].
One hasNa,b,c = Rad(abc)EZ(b),
where
E2 (b)
= 1 if32 ( b, E2 (b)
= 2
if16 ~ b
and 32E2 ( b)
= 4 if41b
and 16¡fb, E2 (b) -
16 if 4lb.
Inparticular
Ea,b,c
is a semi-stableelliptic
curve if andonly
if16 ( b.
1.2. Wiles’ theorem. The work of Wiles and the notion of modular
el-liptic
curve has beenexplained
in manyexpository
articlesrecently.
For a differentperspective
weexplain
themeaning
ofmodularity
for anelliptic
curve in a non-standard way. The
following
formulation has theadvantage
of
bringing directly
to mind thequadratic reciprocity
law of Gauss(the
function ~ below isanalogous
to theLegendre
symbol).
Thispoint
of viewwas introduced
by
Y. Manin(and
maybe
B.Birch)
more thantwenty
yearsago
~45~, 1461> [52].
Let E be an
elliptic
curve overQ.
Let 1 be aprime
number. LetIE(IFl)1 I
be the number of
points
of the reduction modulo 1 of a minimal Weierstrass model of E. Letal(E)
= 1 +1 -IE(IFl)l.
Let
AN
be the set of functionssatisfying
for any(u, v)
E theequations
(the
Maninrelations)
Let
AE
be the set of elements ~ ofAN
satisfying
for everyprime
number 1 anequation
which can take severalforms,
the mostsimple
that I knowbeing
theai(E)-modular
relations(we
abuse the notations here since the relations refers to two numbers: al andl):
where
(a,
b,
c,d)
EZ4.
The curve E is said to be modular
of
level N if there is a non-zero elementin
AE .
Any
elementof AE
must behomogeneous,
i. e. it satisfies theequality
Remark. The existence of a non-zero element of
AE
isequivalent
to theexistence of a normalized
eigenform
ofweight
2 forrl(N’)
whose1-th Fourier coefficient is hence the connection with the standard
notion of
modularity
(see
[55]).
This can beproved by
remarking
thatthere is a
bijection
between the set of elements ofAN
which vanish onnon-primitive
elements of and The functionsof
N
satisfying
theal(E)-modular
relationscorrespond
bijectively
to theelements of
HI
(Yl
(N) (C), Z)
which areeigenvalue
of the Hecke operator7l
with theeigenvalue
ai (E)
see~55~.
The
concept
ofmodularity
iscaptured
in the lastfamily
ofequations.
It is theexpression
of a lawruling
all the reductions modulo 1 of theelliptic
curve E. Remark that the
integers a, b,
c, d involved in the sumdepend
onThe curve E is said to be modular if it is modular of some level. If E
is a modular
elliptic
curve, then a theorem of H.Carayol
([5])
implies
thatit is modular of level the conductor of E. The set of functions 4D which establish the
modularity
at that level is a free Z-module of rank 2. Therecent work of Wiles
[77]
(completed
by
ajoint
work withTaylor
[75]
andsubsequent
work of Diamond and Kramer[17])
leadsamongst
otherthings
to the
following
result,
asexplained
in[17]
(K.
Rubin and A.Silverberg
also remarked in[65]
that the next theorem can be deduced from another workof Diamond
[16]).
Theorem 1.1
(Wiles,
Taylor-Wiles,
Diamond-Kramer).
Theelliptic
curveEa,b,c
is modular.1.3. Serre’s
conjectures.
Let p be aprime
number. Consider anirre-ducible Galois
representation
which is
odd,
i.e. the determinant of theimage
of acomplex
conjugation
is-1.
There is a notion of
modularity
for such arepresentation.
For everyprime
number 1~
p at which therepresentation
p isunramified,
denoteby
al(p) (resp. bl (p))
the trace(resp.
thedeterminant)
of theimage
inGL2(JFp)
of a Frobeniusendomorphism
at theprime
l. Onceagain
wegive
a non-standard formulation ofmodularity
as above.Let
AN,p
be the set of functionssatisfying
for any(u, v)
E(Z /NZ)
the Manin relationsLet
Ap
be the set of elements ofAN,p
satisfying
for everyprime
number 1 theal(p)-modular
relations:where a, b,
c and d areintegers,
andWe say that the
representation
p is modularof
levelN,
if there exists anon-zero function in
Ap.
The
representation
p is said to be modular if it is modular of some level..Remark. This definition of
modularity
can be shown to beequivalent
to theone used
originally by
Serre. One can first reformulate Serre’sconjecture
using
modular forms ofweight
2only
by using
results of Ash and Stevens[2].
Making
use of theinterpretation
of functionssatisfying
the Maninrelations in terms of the
homology
of modular curves as we did in theprevious
section( i. e.
one shows that the existence of an element ofAp
isequivalent
to the existence of a non-zero modularform f
ofweight
2 forr1(N)
in characteristicp
which satisfies =(l
prime
~’Np,
Tl
isthe 1-th Hecke
operator).
Take note that we allow theprime
p to divide N here.Serre
conjectures
that anyodd,
irreduciblerepresentation
is modular.Moreover he
predicts
the minimal level ofmodularity
of such arepresenta-tion
[67].
Let E be an
elliptic
curve overQ.
The setE[p]
ofQ-rational
p-division
points
of E is aFp-vector
space of dimension 2. Let uschoose,
once andfor
all,
an identification between this set and~.
This defines a Galoisrepresentation
pE,p of thetype
considered above. The coefficientsal(PE,p)
and are the reductions modulo p of and 1respectively.
If the
elliptic
curve E is modular of level N then therepresentation
pE,p is modular of levelN,
as one can seeby
reducing
a function (D attached toE modulo p.
By
choosing
anappropriate multiple
one can insure thatthe reduction is non-zero. Therefore is
homogeneous.
But itmight
occurthat pE,p is modular of level
strictly
smaller than N. This is for instancethe case if the reduction modulo p of 4D is non-zero and factorizes
through
where N’ is
strictly
smaller than N.1.4. The theorems of Ribet and Mazur.
Suppose
that p > 2. For ourpurpose we need
only
thefollowing
recipe
predicted
by
Serre andproved by
Ribet for the level ofmodularity
of therepresentation
pa,b,c,[p] =
For any
integer
n >0,
denoteby
np thelargest
p-th
powerdividing n
and let =
Rad(4/np).
Let =Radp(abc)E2(b).
Theorem 1.2
(Ribet).
Suppose
that p > 2 and that therepresentation
modular and
absolutely
irreducible. Then zs modularof
levelAt this
point
one needs thefollowing
theorem of B. Mazur. We do notinsist on it for the moment since results of this
type
will be thesubject
of the secondpart
of the paper.Theorem 1.3
(Mazur).
Let p be aprime
number,. Let E be anelliptic
curveover Q
having
all its 2-divisionpoints
defined
overQ.
Then PE,p isThis theorem
implies
that we can not have al(Pa,b,c,(p])
=1 + l for almost allprime 1
when p > 3.(If
= 1 + 1 for almost allprimes l,
then1 is an
eigenvalue
of almost everyimage
of a Frobeniusendomorphism.
By
Chebotarev’sdensity theorem,
the number 1 is aneigenvalue
of everyelement in the
image
ofPa,b,c,[p].
Thisimplies
that therepresentation
Pa,b,c,[p]
isreducible.)
1.5. Denes’
conjecture.
Weapply
now themachinery
described above to D6nes’equation.
Wemerely
repeat
in essence here what is contained in[13], [64],
and[67].
In view of the results mentioned in the
background,
we needonly
to proveD6nes’
conjecture
forprime
exponents >
31. Let us consider a solution(x, y, z)
to theequation xP
= 2zP(p
prime
number >31,
xyz =1=
0).
We may suppose that x, y, and z are
coprime
and that x iscongruent
to-1 modulo 4. We want to show that we have x =
y = z = 1.
Proposition
1.4.Suppose
that p is aprime >
3. The Galoisrepresenta-lion
PxP,-2zP,yP,[p] ZS
notsurjective.
Let us consider the
Frey
curveIf z is even, then
3212zP
and the Galoisrepresentation
associated top-division
points
of theFrey
curve is modular of level 2. The space of ho-mogeneous functions(Z/32Z)2
--~Fp
satisfying
the Manin relations isof small dimension. All its elements
satisfy
modularequations
with= l + 1
(l
prime
~’2p) .
This isimpossible by
Mazur’s theorem.If z is
odd,
the Galoisrepresentation
associated topoints
of p-division
ismodular of level 32
by
Ribet’s theorem.One can check
by elementary
but tediouscomputations
of linearalgebra
that the
IFp-vector
space ofhomogeneous
functions of level 32satisfying
the Manin relations and theal (p)
modular relation withal (p) =1=
t+1(for
at leasta
prime 1
)’2p)
is of dimension 2.Using
the fact thatP-1,2,-l,[P]
is modular of level32,
one obtains that the function4)p
attached toPxP,-2zP,yP,(P]
ispro-portional
to one attached toP-1,2,-,,[p]
and therefore thatal(P-1,2,-I,Ipl) =
al (PxP ,-2zP ,yP ,(P]).
Thisimplies
by
Chebotarev’sdensity
theorem and Schur’s lemma that therepresentations
andp_1 ~,_i,pj
areisomorphic.
Note that the
Frey
curveE-1,2,-l
corresponds
to the trivial solution D6nes’equation.
It is anelliptic
curve withcomplex
multiplication
by
the( i. e.
itsring
ofendomorphism
isisomorphic
to
The
theory
ofcomplex multiplication
informs us that theimage
ofP-1,2,-l,[p]
(and
therefore of isstrictly
smaller thanGL2(IFp).
Specifically
it is contained in the normalizer of asplit
(resp. non-split)
Cartan
subgroup
ofif p
iscongruent
to 1(resp. -1)
modulo 4We now turn to the second
part
of our paper toexplain
why
theimage
of a Galois
representation
of thetype
issurjective
when(a, b, c) ~
(-l, 2, -1)
and p > 3.
2. RATIONAL POINTS ON MODULAR CURVES
2.1. Serre’s
problem.
In[66],
Serreproved
thefollowing
theorem. Theorem 2.1(Serre).
Let E be anelliptic
curveover Q
which does nothave
complexe
multiplication.
There exists a numberBE
such thatfor
everyprime
numbers p >BE
the mapis
surjective.
The interested reader
might
consult[68]
to see this theorem put in alarger
theoretical context. Serreproposed
thefollowing
problem:
Can the number
BE
be chosenuniformly
(i.e.
independently of
E)?
Thisproblem
is still unsolved. The smallestpossible
candidate for auniform
BE,
up to the currentknowledge,
is 37~50~.
There are formulas for
BE
in terms of various invariants of E[47].
Onemight
try
to find anexpression
forBE
in terms of the conductor of E.Building
on[70],
A. Krausproved
thefollowing
result[40]:
Theorem 2.2
(Kraus).
Let E be a modularelliptic
curve withoutcomplex
multiplication.
Then therepresentation
PE,p issurjective
when one haswhere
NE
is theproduct of
theprime
numbersdividing
the conductorof
E.Note that one can
get stronger
boundsassuming
the Generalized Rie-mannHypothesis
[70].
In the case of aFrey
curve isequal
to
~2(&)Rad(a&c).
Kraus’ theoremgives directly
an estimate(left
to thereader)
for the size ofhypothetic
solutions to D6nes’equation.
To determine the
image
of pE,p, we have to take into account that itsdeterminant is
Pp.
To show that issurjective
it isenough
to show that itsimage
is not contained in any of thefollowing
proper maximalsubgroups
of
[66]:
- A Borel
subgroup,
i. e. up toconjugacy
the group of uppertriangular
matrices.
- The normalizer of
a
split
Cartansubgroup
of i. e. up toconjugacy
the set ofdiagonal
orantidiagonal
matrices.- The normalizer of
a
non-split
Cartansubgroup
ofGL2(Fp),
i. e. up toconjugacy
the normalizer of theimage
of anembedding
of~2
intoGL2(Fp)
- An
exceptional
subgroup,
i. e. asubgroup
ofGL2(Fp)
whoseimage
in
PGL2(Fp)
isisomorphic
to thesymmetric
groupS4
or to one of thealternate groups
A4
orA5.
The two latter cases can not occur because ofthe
surjectivity
of the determinant. The case ofS4
can occuronly if p
iscongruent
to ~3 modulo 8.Serre showed that the
image
of PE,p can not be contained in anexcep-tional
subgroup
when p > 13 or p = 7[66].
2.2. Mazur’s theorems. Serre’s
problem
can be translated in terms of rationalpoints
on modular curves, i. e. indiophantine
terms.Let N be an
integer >
0. LetY(N)
be the curve which is the modulispace of
pairs
0),
where S is aQ-scheme,
E/S
is anelliptic
curveand 0
is anisomorphism
of group scheme between and the groupE[N]
of N-divisionpoints
of E. It is a curve definedover Q
endowedwith an action of
GL2(Z/NZ)
defined overQ.
Let K be asubgroup
ofGL2(Z/NZ).
LetYK
=Y(N)/K.
This curve classifieselliptic
curves overQ
up toQ-isomorphism
such that theimage
of the mapis contained in K.
A
positive
answer to Serre’sproblem
isequivalent
to show that none ofthese curves has a
Q-rational
point
which does notcorrespond
to anelliptic
curve withcomplex multiplication
when N = p is alarge enough
prime
number and K is a proper
subgroup
ofGL2(Z/pZ).
We describe
briefly
Mazur’sapproach
to Serre’sproblem.
LetXK
be thecomplete
modular curve attached to thesubgroup K
of LetJK
be thejacobian variety
ofXK.
For any cusp
Q
ofXK,
denoteby
kQ
CQ(J-tN)
its field of definition andby
jQ
themorphism
XK
-JK
which sends P to the class of the divisor(P) - (Q).
Let 0 = Let I be aprime
number which does notdivides N. Let A be a
prime
ideal of 0 C above 1. LetOx
be thecompletion
of C~ at A.There is a canonical smooth model
XK
ofXK
over C~[14].
Let A be anoptimal quotient
ofJK,
i. e. an abelianvariety
definedover Q
such thatthere exists a
surjective homomorphism
of abelian varietiesover Q
JK
--7 Awith connected kernel. Let
jQ,A
be themorphism
XK ->
A obtainedby
composing
themorphism
JK
- A withjQ.
By
universalproperty
ofNeron model
jQ,A
extends to amorphism
XK ooth
- A defined over L~.Proposition
2.3. Let 1 be aprime
number¡f2N.
Let A be aprime
of
C~dividing
l.Suppose
that there exists an abelianvariety
Adefined over Q
such that1)
A is a non-trivialoptimal quotients
of JK
withfinitely
manyQ-rational
2)
Themorphism
jQ,A
is aformal
immersion atQ
in characteristic lfor
each cusp
Q of
XK.
Then there is no
elliptic
curve Eover Q
such that 1 divides the numeratorof
j(E)
and such that theimage
of
is contained in K.Proof. Suppose
that the conclusion of the theorem is false. Then the modu-lar curveXK
has aQ-rational
point
P which is not a cusp. Let us prove thatjQ,A(P)
is a torsionpoint
of A for any cuspQ.
Let D be aQ-rational
divi-sor ofdegree n
> 0 withsupport
on the cusps ofXK
(There
existssome).
By
the Drinfeld-Manin theorem[19]
the class x of the divisor D -n(Q)
ofdegree
0 is torsion inJK.
Thepoint
njQ(P) - x
ofJK
isQ-rational.
Itsimage
in A is of finite order sinceA(Q)
is finite. ThereforenjQ,A(P)
is of finite order. ThereforejQ A(P)
is a torsionpoint
of A for any cuspQ
ofXK.
Since 1 divides the denominator
of j(E),
the sectionsSpec(9
XK
defined
by
P and some cuspQ
coincide atA,
for someprime
divisor A of 1.This
implies
thatjQ,A (P)
crossesjQ,A
= 0 in thespecial
fiber at A of A.Since 1 > 2 and since 1 is unramified in
kQ (because 1 /N)
and sinceJK
(and
thereforeA)
hasgood
reductionat l,
a standardspecialization
lemma can beapplied
to show thatjQ,A(P)
= 0(see
~50~).
Therefore we have
jQ,A(P)
=jQ,A(Q)
= 0 and the sections definedby
Pand
Q
coincide in characteristic I. This contradicts the fact thatjQ,A
is a formal immersion in characteristic 1 at the cuspQ.
Remarks.
1)
Mazur’s method can, to a certainextent,
begeneralized
toalgebraic
number fields ofhigher degree
([1], [34], [54]).
2)
Mazur showed how the formal immersionproperty
can often be checkedusing
thetheory
of Heckeoperators
andq-expansions
of modular forms[50].
3)
Central to the method is the existence of a non-trivialquotient
abelianvariety
of thejacobian
withfinitely
many rationalpoints.
In[49],
Mazur introduced the Eisensteinquotient
ofJo(p)
andproved
the finiteness of the group of rationalpoints
of thisquotient
by
a method which made use ofthe
semi-stability
ofJo(p).
Mazur’s construction andproof
have not beenextended to non semi-stable
jacobians
of modular curves(see
[27]
for anattempt).
The Eisensteinquotient
was used in[50]
as theauxiliary
abelianvariety
A to prove thefollowing
result in the direction of Serre’sproblem
(from
which one deduces the theorem1.3).
Theorem 2.4
(Mazur).
Let p be aprime
number. Let E be anelliptic
curve
over Q
such that theimage
of
contained in a Boredsubgroup
of
GL2(Fp).
Then one hasp
163.If
one supposes that all thepoints of
2-divisionof
E arerational,
then one has p 3.By
the samemethod,
and stillusing
the Eisensteinquotient,
F. MomoseTheorem 2.5
(Momose).
Let p be an oddprime
number. Let E be anelliptic
curve suchthat j(E) ~
Z[ 1
]
and such that theimage of
is contained in the normalizer
of
asplit
Cartansubgroup
of GL2(Fp).
Thenone has
2.3.
Winding quotients.
Theconjecture
of Birch andSwinnerton-Dyer
provides
a criterion to decide whether an abelianvariety over Q
hasfinitely
many rational
points:
one has to check whether the L-function of the abelianvariety
vanishes at thepoint
1.By
awinding quotient,
we mean a maximalquotient
abelianvariety
of thejacobian
of a modular curve(or
alternately
of the new
part
of thejacobian)
whose L-function does not vanish at thepoint
1. Thisterminology
has itsorigin
in[48]
and~49~.
Let N be an
integer >
0. LetJ1
(N)
be thejacobian
of the modular curveXl(N).
Let T be thesubring
ofEnd(Ji(N))
generated
by
the Heckeopera-tor
Ti
Itoperates
on thenew-quotient
JîeW(N)
ofJ¡(N).
Let I bean ideal of T. Let
JI
be thequotient
abelianvariety
A classical theorem of
Eichler, Shimura, Igusa
andCarayol
asserts, after aneasy
reformulation,
thatwhere
f
runsthrough
the newforms(i.e.
the normalizedeigenforms
ofweight
2 which are new forrl(N)),
and whereIn the direction of the
conjecture
of Birch andSwinnerton-Dyer,
K. Katohas announced
that,
amongst
otherthings,
he has obtained thefollowing
theoremby
anoriginal
method[36],
[37], [38].
Theorem 2.6
(Kato).
Suppose
thatL(JI,
1) ~
0,
then the groupof
ratio-nal
points
of
JI
isfinite.
This theorem should be sufficient to decide whether the
jacobian
of any modular curve has a non-trivialquotient
withfinitely
many rationalpoints.
Let us mention the earlier work of V.Kolyvagin
and D.Logachev
[39]
which treated the case of
quotients
of jacobians
of the formThey
built on earlier work
by
Kolyvagin,
on a formula of B. Gross and D.Zagier
(28~,
and on a result establishedindependently
by
K.Murty
and R.Murty
[57]
andby
D.Bump,
S.Friedberg,
and J. Hoffstein[4].
This last case issufficient for the
practical applications
which have been considered up tonow. Indeed all three families of modular curves considered to solve Serre’s
problem
are related tojacobian
varieties of thetype
Jo(N) (in
the Borel and normalizer of asplit
Cartan cases this isevident,
in the normalizer ofa
non-split
Cartan case it is a theorem of Chenexplained
below).
We turn to that case in more detail.Let N be an
integer >
0. Let d be asquare-free integer
dividing
N(in
particular
onemight
have d =1).
Denoteby
Wd the Fricke involution
Xo(N).
Denoteby
Jo(N)d
thejacobian
of thequotient
curveXo(N)/wd
Let us describe a
winding
quotient
of thejacobian
Jo(N)d
of the curveXo(N). (A
finer version is described in P. Parent’sforthcoming
thesis.)
Let T be thesubring
ofEnd(Jo(N)d)
generated
by
the Hecke operatorsTn
(n
>1,
(N, n) = 1).
Itoperates
on thesingular
homology
groupH1
Let e be the
unique
element such that theintegral
of any
holomorphic
differential form ca onalong
acycle
ofclass e coincides with the
integral along
thepath
from 0 to ioo in the upperhalf-plane
of thepullback
of Mazur has called e thewinding
element(see
[48]
for theorigin
of thisterminology).
LetIe
be the annihilator of e inT. Let be the old abelian
subvariety
ofJo(N)d.
Let bethe
quotient
abelianvariety
Jo(N)d/(IeJo(N)d
+ Thefollowing
proposition
can beproved
by mimicking
what is in[55]
(the
case Nprime
and d =
1)
and in[13]
(the
case N =2p2
and d =p).
Proposition
2.7. TheL-function of
does not vanish at thepoint
1.By
application
of the theorem ofKolyvagin
andLogachev
one obtains.Theorem 2.8
(Kolyvagin-Logachev).
The groupofQ-rational
points of
theabelian
variety
isfinite.
Therefore one obtains the
following
criterion which is aprior
curioussince it involves
only
thecomplex
structure of the modular curve.Corollary
2.9.If e
does notbelong
to the oldpart
of
H1(Xo(N)d(C),Q),
then has a non trivialquotient
withfinitely
many rationalpoints.
To check such a criterion one
might
have to make calculations onmod-ular
symbols using
Manin’spresentation
of thehomology
ofXo(N)
([45],
[54], [61]).
The verification amounts then to astudy
of agraph
withver-tices indexed
by
(see
[54], [61])
which isessentially
the "dessin d’enfant" associated to the curveXo(N)
in the sense of[29].
However in[13],
this was doneby
asimpler
argument
that we do not describe here. 2.4. Chen’sisogeny.
In[13]
a result of I. Chen was used to obtain ourmain result
(6~.
Theorem 2.10
(Chen).
LetKns
(resp. Ks) be the
normalizerof
acorresponding
modular curves. LetJns
andJs
be thejacobians
of
Xns
andXs.
There is anisogeny
of
abelian varietiesdefined over Q
betweenJ,
andJns
xJo (p) .
Chen uses trace formulas to prove that the two abelian varieties have the
same L-function.
Making
use of a theorem ofFaltings
he concludes thatthe abelian varieties are
isogenous.
Theproblem
was reconsideredby
B.Edixhoven in
[20],
who gave a moreelementary
proof
of Chen’s theorembased on the
theory
ofrepresentation
ofGL2(Fp).
Neither of these twoproofs
gave anexplicit description
of theisogeny,
nor is the shortproof
that wegive
below.Since
JS
isisomorphic
to thejacobian
ofXO(p2)/wp
(where
wp is the Frickeinvolution),
anelementary
argument
ofsign
of functionalequation
of L-function leads to thefollowing
consequence.Corollary
2.11. TheL-function of
any non-trivialquotient
abelianvariety
of
Jns
vanishes at 1.If one believes in the
conjecture
of Birch andSwinnerton-Dyer,
nonon-trivial
quotient
abelianvariety
ofJns
hasfinitely
many rationalpoints.
Andwe are embarrassed to
apply
Mazur’s method toXns.
One is
tempted
now to consider other results in the direction of theconjecture
of Birch andSwinnerton-Dyer,
such as the formula of Gross andZagier
[28]
and the result ofKolyvagin
onelliptic
curves ofanalytic
rank one to understand the arithmetic ofJns.
We expect that Chen’s
isogeny
can be deduced from from anexplicit
correspondence
betweenXS
andXns.
Let
Hp
=("The
upper
half-plane
overIt is a finite set of
cardinality
P(p - 1)/2
endowed with a transitiveaction of
GL2(Fp)
deduced from thehomographies
on Let A =f t, -tl
EHp
suchthat t2
E1FP .
Let be the stabilizer of A inGL2(Fp ).
It is the normalizer of a
non-split
Cartansubgroup
ofGL2(Fp).
Let ca C
Hp.
To any g EGL2 (Fp )
we associate a subset gca ofHp
(the
support
of a"geodesic
path"
ofHP)
and apair
of elements of the setf g0, goo)
(two "cusps").
For every
pair
P2 ~
of distinct elements of there is an elementg E
GL2(Fp)
such that{P1,P2~.
This element is well definedup to
multiplication
by
adiagonal
orantidiagonal
matrix. Thisimplies
thatthe set gca
depends only
onf Pi, P2 1.
Let us denote itby
Pl, P2
>. LetCp
be the set ofpairs
of distinct elements ofP (Fp ) .
The group of
diagonal
orantidiagonal
matrices is the normalizerKS
ofthe
split
Cartansubgroup
ofGL2(Fp )
formedby diagonal
matrices. Themap
GL2(Fp )
-Cp
whichto g
associatesf g0, goo}
defines abijection
Let
be the group
homomorphism
which associates to[IP,, P2}]
the sum ofel-ements of
Pi, P2
>(the
map which to thesupport
of a"geodesic
path"
associates the sum of itspoints).
Letbe the group
homomorphism
which to~P~
associates the sum of elementsof
Cp
containing
P.The group
homomorphism
- . , .. ,. - - , r ,.
-which to
gKs
associates¿hEGL2(JFp)/(KsnKns)
coincides withf
if oneidentifies
Hp
with andCp
with as above. Therefore one deduces fromf~°
acorrespondence
fp:
X,
-~Xns given
by
the canonicalmorphism
XKasnxs
- Xns x Xs
and ofdegree
Let
Bo
be the Borelsubgroup
ofGL2(Fp)
consisting
of uppertriangular
matrices. The map
GL2(Fp)
-P1(IFp)
which toto g
associates goodefines a
bijection
betweenG L2 (JFp ) / Bo
andP (Fp ) .
The group
homomorphism
which to
gBo
associates¿hEGL2(JFp)/(KsnBo)
ghKs
coincideswith 0
if one identifiesP (Fp )
withGL2(Fp)/Bo
andCp
with as above.Denote,
asusual, by
Xp(p)
the modular curveXBo.
One deduces fromgp
acorrespondence
gp:Xo(P)
--7Xs
ofdegree
p., A
straightforward
calcula-Problem 2.12. What is the
image
of
f2?
To our embarassment we could not
give
an answer to thisquestion.
It islikely
that thisimage
generates
Q[Hp]
as a vector space. This was verifiedby
Chen in a few non-trivial cases.If this is true, the inverse
image by
12
of 20 isgenerated by
theimage
of92.
Inparticular
the kernel offP
isgenerated by
theimage
by 0
of elements ofdegree
0.Let us say that a divisor of
XS
isp-old
if it is theimage
by
thecorrespon-dence
Xo (p)
-->XS
and that a divisor ofXns
isp-old
if it is the inverseimage
of a divisor ofX(1)
by
themorphism
Xns
-->X(1).
SinceX(1)
is acurve of genus
0,
the class anyp-old
divisor ofdegree
0 is 0 inJns(p).
Theproperties
offp
translateimmediately
intoproperties
of thecorrespondence
The
correspondence
fp
definesby
Albanese and Picardfunctiorality
twohomomorphisms
of abelian varietiesfp*:
JS
)Jns
andfP:
Jns 2013~ ~
Thecorrespondence
gp definessimilarly
anhomomorphism
of abelianvariety
gp,:~ JS.
Since one hasfp*
ogP*(Jo(p))
=0,
one canexpect
thatfP*
isthe
explicit
description
of Chen’sisogeny.
To prove this it would suffice toshow that the cokernel
of fp
is finite.Remark.
Using
thetechniques
of[43],
the determination of theimage
ofi f p 0
should lead to theexplicit
description
of the kernel of It would not besurprising
if theimage
off~
containedLet us
give
aquick proof,
essentially
suggested by
Edixhoven,
of Chen’stheorem. Let E be a set with one element considered as a trivial
GL2(IFP)-set.Lemma 2.13. The sets
PI
(Fp )
UHp
andCp
U E areweakly isomorphic
asi.e. any element
of
GL2(Fp)
has the same numberof fixed
points
in each set.Proof. Let g
EGL2(Fp).
The number of fixedpoints
of 9
depends only
on theconjugacy
class of g. There are fourtypes
ofconjugacy
classes. In each case we indicate the number of fixedpoints
of g
inP1(IFp),
Hp, Cp
and Erespectively.
First case: g is a scalarmatrix;
The numbers of fixedpoints
are p +1,
P~ 2 1~ ,
1 and 1. Second case: g has two distincteigenvalues
in
Fp -
We have then2, 0, 1,
and 1. Third case: g is not a scalar matrix andhas one double root in its characteristic
polynomial;
The numbers of fixedpoints
are1, 0, 0,
and 1. Fourth and final case: g has noeigenvalue
inFp;
One obtains
2, 1, 0,
and 1.In each case the sum of the first two numbers
equals
the sum of theremaining
two.As a consequence the
Q[GL 2 (Fp )]-modules
Q[P
andQ[Cp
U E~
areisomorphic
(see
[72]
exercise5,
chapter
13).
Using
the identifications ofHp, Cp,
and E as cosets ofGL2 (Fp )
given above,
such anisomor-phism
defines acorrespondence
fromXo ( 1 ) U XS (p)
toXo (p) U Xns (p) ,
whichdefines in turn,
by
Albanesefonctoriality
anhomomorphism
of abelianva-rieties
Since
Jo (I)
istrivial,
Chen’s theorem follows.One can deduce mutates mutandis similar results