Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 24 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use two-isogeny descent with , , so the partner elliptic curve is . On , a negative would make negative. Hence the prime-support bound in two-isogeny descent restricts the square class image to . All four occur: the identity gives , and the rational points , , give respectively , , and in . Thus .
For the partner, , so its square class image is contained in . A realization of would yield coprime integers , not both zero, satisfyingIf exactly one of is odd, the right side is modulo four, which is not a square. If both are odd, and , so the right side is modulo sixteen, again impossible. Both even is excluded by coprimality. This proves the negative unit obstruction for the fourteen-coefficient isogeny cover; the identity realizes , so .
The two-isogeny rank formula now gives . Consequently this is the rank-zero elliptic curve with roots zero three and four:The displayed nonzero-ordinate points are therefore torsion points of an elliptic curve, rather than evidence of positive rank. In fact doubling either or gives , so both have order four.
For this elliptic curve, the two-isogeny formula gives the partner . The prime-support bound in two-isogeny descent and positivity of nonzero rational restrict the first square class image to . The identity and the rational points realize these classes. The partner image is contained in , and the negative unit obstruction for the fourteen-coefficient isogeny cover excludes . The two-isogeny rank formula therefore gives .