Chord-and-tangent group law

On a smooth plane cubic with identity point $O$, a line through points $P$ and $Q$, interpreted as the tangent when $P=Q$, meets the cubic in a third point $R$. The chord-and-tangent group law defines $P+Q$ as the third intersection of the line through $R$ and $O$ with the cubic.

Assume the elliptic-curve discriminant is nonzero. Then $b\ne 0$, and tangency at $P$ gives $2P=(-b,b(a-1))$ and $-2P=(-b,0)$. The line through $P,2P$ has slope $1-a$ and gives $3P=(1-a,a-b-1)$, $-3P=(1-a,(1-a{)}^2)$. Consequently $P$ has exact order four when $a=1$, exact order five when $a=b+1$, and exact order six when $b=(a-1)(2-a)$. The nonsingularity condition excludes the zero values of $b$ that would otherwise invalidate these torsion conclusions.

For a smooth genus one curve with origin $O$, the map $P\mapsto [(P)-(O)]$ identifies geometric points with the degree-zero Picard group of a curve. Riemann-Roch theorem gives a unique effective representative for each divisor class of degree one: its Riemann-Roch space has dimension one. A line cuts a plane cubic in a divisor linearly equivalent to $3(O)$ when $O$ is the Weierstrass flex. The two successive line intersections in the chord-and-tangent group law therefore give addition of the corresponding divisor classes. Associativity follows by injectivity of the identification and associativity of divisor-class addition, including tangent intersection multiplicities.

For a fixed point $Q$ on an elliptic curve, translation is the automorphism $P\mapsto P+Q$. Its inverse is translation by $-Q$. Translations let local computations of an invariant differential on an elliptic curve control every point of the curve.

For a singular projective Weierstrass cubic, its smooth locus of a variety contains the point at infinity and carries the chord-and-tangent group law. The singular point is excluded. Over an algebraic closure, a node gives the multiplicative algebraic group and a cusp gives the additive group. A node whose branches are not defined over the base field gives a nonsplit one-dimensional algebraic torus. This group is distinct from an elliptic curve, whose projective model is smooth.

On $y^2=x^3+a_2{x}^2+a_{4}x+a_6$, let $\lambda$ be the secant slope through distinct points $P,Q$, or the tangent slope when $P=Q$. Then

On $y^2=x^3+ax+b$ in characteristic of a field other than two, take the elementary symmetric polynomials $s_i$ of $x(P),x(Q),x(P+Q)$. If the line through $P,Q$ is $y=\lambda x+\mu$, its third intersection is $-(P+Q)$, so coefficient comparison gives $s_1={\lambda }^2$, $s_2=a-2\lambda \mu$, $s_3={\mu }^2-b$. Hence $(s_2-a{)}^2=4s_1(s_3+b)$. This is an identity of rational functions; tangent cases follow by specialization, and coordinates at infinity are handled through the projective addition map.