Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2008 / iii / Paper 21 / 5 / i

Let $E$ be the elliptic curve, and choose a point $O\in E(k)$ to serve as identity. Its geometric genus is one and its canonical divisor $K$ has degree zero. For any divisor $D$ of degree one, the Riemann-Roch theorem givesSince $K-D$ has degree $-1$, its Riemann-Roch space is zero: a nonzero section would produce an effective divisor of negative degree. Hence $\ell (D)=1$. Choose a nonzero $f\in L(D)$. The divisor $D+(f)$ is effective of degree one, so over the algebraically closed field it is a single point $P$. Thus every degree-one divisor class has a point representative.

This representative is unique. If $P$ and $Q$ are linearly equivalent, choose $h$ with $(h)=P-Q$. Then $h\in L(Q)$. That space has dimension one and already contains the constants, so $h$ is constant and $P=Q$. Consequentlyis injective. It is also surjective: if $D$ represents a degree-zero divisor class, apply the preceding result to $D+O$ to obtain its unique point representative $P$, giving $[D]=[P-O]$.

The degree-zero Picard group of a curve is a group because divisors add commutatively, principal divisors form a subgroup, and degree passes to the quotient. DefineEquivalently, $R=P\oplus Q$ is the unique point satisfying the linear equivalence of divisors $P+Q\sim R+O$, where the plus signs in this equivalence denote divisor addition. The zero class corresponds to $O$, so $O$ is the identity. The inverse of $P$ is the unique point $P^{\prime }$ with $P+P^{\prime }\sim 2O$. Associativity follows because both $(P\oplus Q)\oplus R$ and $P\oplus (Q\oplus R)$ map to $\iota (P)+\iota (Q)+\iota (R)$, and $\iota$ is injective; commutativity follows in the same way. Thus this is an abelian group structure on $E(k)$, obtained directly by the elliptic curve group law from Riemann-Roch. The identity choice is part of the construction.