Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/iii/paper-19/2/ii/solution

The -power Frobenius isogeny sends affine coordinates to , has degree , and fixes exactly the points defined over , including the origin. Consequently
The degree is because the -power Frobenius on a smooth curve has function-field inseparable degree . By the permitted separability of , this separable isogeny has exactly geometric kernel points; there is no inseparable multiplicity to remove. Part(i) therefore gives
This relates the elliptic-curve point count over a finite field to the integer trace, rather than treating the point count as an independently assumed definition of the trace.

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