Rational points on modular elliptic curves Henri Darmon Department of Mathematics, McGill University, Montreal, Que- bec, Canada, H3A-2K6 Current address: Department of Mathematics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A-2K6 E-mail address:
[email protected] 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 11-02; Secondary 11F03 11F06 11F11 11F41 11F67 11F75 11F85 11G05 11G15 11G40 Key words and phrases. Elliptic curves, modular forms, Heegner points, Shimura curves, rigid analysis, p-adic uniformisation, Hilbert modular forms, Stark-Heegner points, Kolyvagin's theorem. Abstract. Based on an NSF-CBMS lecture series given by the author at the University of Central Florida in Orlando from August 8 to 12, 2001, this mono- graph surveys some recent developments in the arithmetic of modular elliptic curves, with special emphasis on the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, the construction of rational points on modular elliptic curves, and the crucial role played by modularity in shedding light on these questions. iii A Galia et Maia Contents Preface xi Chapter 1. Elliptic curves 1 1.1. Elliptic curves 1 1.2. The Mordell-Weil theorem 3 1.3. The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture 6 1.4. L-functions 7 1.5. Some known results 8 Further results and references 9 Exercises 10 Chapter 2. Modular forms 13 2.1. Modular forms 13 2.2. Hecke operators 14 2.3. Atkin-Lehner theory 16 2.4. L-series 17 2.5. Eichler-Shimura theory 18 2.6. Wiles' theorem 20 2.7. Modular symbols 21 Further results and references 25 Exercises 26 Chapter 3. Heegner points on X0(N) 29 3.1.