Vanishing trace criterion for a congruent number curve

ID: vanishing-trace-criterion-for-a-congruent-number-curve

At an odd good prime, use a model with a unit. If , pairing with cancels their Legendre symbols, so the trace is zero. If , the four distinct rational 2-torsion points force the group order to be divisible by four, whereas is two modulo four. The trace cannot vanish. This proves the converse without an explicit complex-multiplication character-sum evaluation.

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