Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-analytic-number-theory-and-elliptic-curves-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2009/b/5/b/solution
Past exam of the analytic number theory and elliptic curves course of the University of Oxford 2009 B 5 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
The discriminant of is , so five and seven are primes of good reduction of an elliptic curve. Count solutions over their residue fields.
Modulo five the values of for are . They yield affine points, respectively, and the point at infinity gives .
Modulo seven the values for are . Only the three values four are nonzero squares, giving six affine points and .
For a rational elliptic curve at an odd prime of good reduction of an elliptic curve, the kernel of reduction on has no torsion element: it is the formal group on , whose formal logarithm embeds it in the additive group . Thus the entire torsion subgroup injects into each of the two finite reduction groups. Its order divides both six and seven, hence is one:Equivalently one may use prime-to-residue-characteristic injection at both primes; it gives the same coprime bound. This is a two-prime bound on rational elliptic torsion.
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