Torsion Points of Elliptic Curves Over Number Fields
Torsion Points of Elliptic Curves Over Number Fields Christine Croll A thesis presented to the faculty of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science with Honors. Department of Mathematics Amherst, Massachusetts April 21, 2006 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisor, Prof. Farshid Hajir of the University of Mas- sachusetts at Amherst, for his willingness to explain everything twice. I would also like to thank Prof. Tom Weston of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, for entertaining me during my 9 a.m. Number Theory course; Prof. Peter Norman of the University of Massachusetts, for offering me the summer research that inspired this thesis; and the Umass Mathematics department for my Mathematical education. Lastly, to the English major, Animal Science major, and Biology major that have had to live with me, thank you for putting up with this strange Math major. Abstract A curve C over Q is an equation f(x, y) = 0, where f is a polynomial: f ∈ Z[x, y]. It is interesting to study the set of rational points for curves, denoted as C(Q), which consists of pairs (x, y) ∈ Q2 satisfying f(x, y) = 0. For curves of degree 1 and 2 we know how to write C(Q) as a parametrized set, therefore enabling us to know all the rational points for curves of these degrees. For irreducible, smooth curves of degree 3 equipped with at least one rational point, which are called elliptic curves, C(Q) is a group. As with other groups, each element of C(Q) has an order.
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