F. Pellarin the ISOGENY THEOREM and the IRREDUCIBILITY THEOREM for ELLIPTIC CURVES: a SURVEY
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Rend. Sem. Mat. Univ. Poi. Torino Voi. 53, 4 (1995) Number Theory F. Pellarin THE ISOGENY THEOREM AND THE IRREDUCIBILITY THEOREM FOR ELLIPTIC CURVES: A SURVEY Abstract.The purpose of the present paper is to give a survey on the isogeny theorem and the irreducibility theorem for elliptic curves with regard to effectiveness. After some preliminaries, we present in Section 2 the most important questions on this subject throughout the work of Serre, making use of ultrametric techniques. Transcendental techniques are introduced in Section 3: these are advantageously used by Choodnovsky to get effective versions of the isogeny theorem. In Section 4 we present the work of Masser and Wustholz on polynomial bounds and applications of the effective isogeny theorem. Finally we show recent improvements of the previous results and applications to the effective irreducibility theorem. 1. Background In the following text, k is a number fìeld such that [k : Q] = d, k an algebraic closure of k in C, and G the Galois group Gal(fc|fc). Let E\, E2 be two elliptic curves defined over k (with Weierstrass models defined over k). In this text we will only deal with elliptic curves defined over a number fìeld k. DEFINITION. We say that E\ and E2 are isogenous if there exists a surjective morphism E\ —• Ei. We say that E\ and E2 are fc-isogenous if there exists a surjective morphism E\ —» E2 commuting with G. An isogeny (resp. k-isogeny) E\ —> E2 is a surjective morphism (resp. surjective morphism defined over k) whose kernel is a subgroup ofEi. r Write Hom(JEi,i?2) f° the /£-module of isogenies E\ —* E2 and Homjs(EiìE2) ' for the Z-module of &-isogenies E\ —> E2, with the Constant zero map as the identity. In the particular case E\ — E2 — E, the Z-modules Hom(i?i,i?2) and Hom^Ei,E2) are endowed with ring structures End(^) and Enók(E) respectively. Remember that End(i?) has rank at most 2 over Z, and that E has complex multiplication if the rank is 2 (in this case End(i?) is isomorphic to an order of an imaginary quadratic fìeld). Otherwise E has not complex multiplication, and the rank is 1. The Z-module Hom(^i, E2) has rank at most 1 if Ex has no complex multiplications 390 E Pellarin (see chapter III of [29]). We associate with E\ and E2 two lattices Ài and A2 of C such that there exist analytic isomorphisms C/Ai = #i(C) and C/A2 = E2(C). The curves Et and E2 are isogenous if and only if there exists a non-constant C-linear function a : C —*• C such that «Ai C A2 (see chapter VI of [29]). DEFINITION. The degree of an isogeny E\ —»• E2 is the cardinal of its kernel, that is, the finite index [A2 : a Ai]. Other useful tools will be described when necessary in the text, otherwise a reference will be given. 2. Tate modules We recali in brief the definition of the Tate module of an elliptic curve (see [8] chapter I and pages 90-103 of [29]). Let E be an elliptic curve. For a prime number £ and a positive integer ??., the groups E\tn\ form a projective system for the multiplication by £. DEFINITION. The Tate module Tt(E) of E at £ is the projective limit of the system E[£n\ Since G acts over each E[in], it acts over Tt(E), and Ti(E) is endowed with a structure of Qi[G]-module: this is a Galois Module. Let E\ and E2 be two elliptic curves and write Hom^^i),^.^)) for the TLf module of ^-linear functions and ìlomk(Ti(Ei),Ti(E2)) for the Z^-module of 2^-linear functions commuting with G. 2.1 The isogeny Theorem and the irreducibility Theorem. THEOREM 2.1. For ali prime numbers £ and ali positive integers n, the restriction n of the k-isogenies of Hom.k(Ei,E2) to the points of £ -torsion induces a canonical isomorphism Homk(EuE2) ®a 1Lt - Hom^T^Ey),Tt(E2)). This Theorem was first proved by J.-P. Serre in 1966 (see [3] and [4]) in the case Ei — E2 when the modular invariant of E\ is not an algebraic integer. His proof uses the "fìniteness" Theorem of Shafarevich (see [2]). Tate proved the Theorem in 1966 (see [5]) in the case of abelian varieties defìned over a finite field k, but in his article he remarks that the Theorem for elliptic curves is a consequence of results of Deuring in 1941 (see [1] and the bibliography of Serre's book [8]). The isogeny theorem and the irreducibility theorem for elliptic curves 391 The analogous result for abelian varieties defìned' over a number field remained a conjecture ("of Tate") until 1983, when it was proved by Faltings (see [20] and [21], see also [24]). The useful consequence for us is the following (see also p. IV-14 of [8]). THEOREM 2.2 (Isogeny Theorem). Let E\ and E2 be two elliptic curves defìned over k and fa a prime number £. Then E\ and E2 are k-isogenous if and only ifthe Galois modules Tt(Ei) and T^En) are isomorphic. This result, issued from [20], is stronger than the one in [8] because it deals with curves with integrai modular invariant. In chapter IV of this last reference there is another important result (see p. IV-9) for the case E\ — Ei — E., arising from the Theorem of Shafarevich [2] on the places of good reduction of E (see also [29] p. 265) that gives the following LEMMA 2.1. Let E be an elliptic curve over k. There are only finitely many k-isomorphism classes of elliptic curves k-isogenous to E. We say that Tt(E) is irreducible if G does not fix any linear subspace of dimension 1 of T£(E). THEOREM 2.3 (Irreducibility). Let E be an elliptic curve over k and let us suppose that E has no complex multiplications over k. Then Ti(E) is irreducible for ali prime numbers £ and E[£] is irreducible for £ > £Q where £Q is a Constant depending on E and k. The proof of the second property is a simple application of the Lemma 2.1. We recali in brief the proof in [29] p. 265. Let $i C E[i] be a non-trivial G-invariant subgroup. Then <3><» is cyclic of order £ and the quotient of E by $i is isomorphic to an elliptic curve Et over k which is k- isogenous to E by an isogeny 4>i with kernel $t. By varying £ and using the fact that Endk(E) — 7L, we obtain the result. In [12] Serre proved a more general result involving the ?2-torsion points E[n] for a rational integer n not necessarily a prime number in the case of no complex multiplication over k. The group G acts on E[n] for n rational integer and the image of the representation in Aut(i?[n]) has an index bounded by a Constant depending only on E and k . This implies LEMMA 2.2. Let E be an elliptic curve over k with no complex multiplications over k. Then there exist two constants c\ and c2 depending only on E and k such that the n An n 4n relative degree [k(E[£ ]) : k] satisfies cx£ < [k(E[£ ]) : k] < c2£ . Proof The main result of [12] implies that the cardinal of Gal(k(E[£n])\k) is An greater than Cl£ = ciCard(GL2(F^)). 392 E Pellarin n Define E(£) as the union of ali groups E[£ ]. Then pt(Ga\(k(Et)\k)) is a closed Lie subgroup of Enók(Tt(E)) and the cardinal of Ga\(k(E[f,n])\k) has order of growth at most £4n as n —» oo. REMARK. We may evaluate the degree of an isogeny by using Theprem 2.1. LEMMA 2.3. Let <j> be a k-isogeny front E\ to E2 and let fa be the image of $ by the naturai injection (see [29] p. 92) (2.1) Homk(EliE2)->Hpmk(Ti(E1)ìTl(E2)). Then deg <ft — ± det fa. Let Ti(/i) be the projective limit of the groups pcn of the P-th roots of unity with the structure of Galois module (see [8] p. 1-3). Let <j> : E\ —• E2 be a fc-isogeny. By the proposition 8.3 p. 99 of [29], there exists an alternating non-degenerate and G'-invariant bilinear pairing, called Weil pairing ei:Ti(Ei)xTt{Ei)->Tl(p), 1=1,2, such that <j> and its dual isogeny 0 (with the property that <j><j> = [deg(<^)], see [29] p. 84) are adjoint by e,;. Let fa be the image of </» in Hoirifc(T£(i?i), Ti(E2)), let us fix a 2^-basis vi, v2 of Tt(Ei) and a 2^-basis v[,v'2 ofTi(E2). Let ( , j be the matrix representing $£ in these bases. We have, by the properties of e; (see [29] p. 135): de ei(i/i,t;2) 8(*) = ci([deg(^)]t;i,t;2) = ei(<j>cfavi,v2) = e2(favi,fav2) — e2{av[ + cv'n, bv[ -f dv'0) Now we observe that the matrix of fa is the adjoint matrix of the matrix of fa. By det( the fact that deg^ = deg0 we also have e^v^.v'^^^ = ei(i>i, v2) ^. We obtain deg^ = ±det fa. REMARK - COMPLEX MULTIPLICATION. If E has complex multiplication over k, ali the problems sketched before are simpler: fìrstly, it is well known that the action of Ga\(k\k) over Tt{E) is abelian ([29] p.