Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2024 / iii / Paper 125 / 1 / a / Solution

Let $E$ be a smooth plane cubic whose identity $O$ is an inflection point. A line through $P$ and $Q$, using the tangent when $P=Q$, has a third intersection $R$ counted with multiplicity. The chord-and-tangent group law defines $P+Q$ by drawing the line through $R$ and $O$ and taking its third intersection.

The clean verification of the group axioms uses divisors. The line at infinity meets a Weierstrass cubic in $3(O)$, so three collinear points $P,Q,R$ satisfyConsequently the mapsends the chord-and-tangent construction to addition of divisor classes. The principal divisor criterion on an elliptic curve shows that this map is bijective. Associativity and commutativity therefore follow from the abelian group law on ${\mathrm{Pic}}^0(E)$. The tangent convention handles repeated intersections, $O$ represents the zero class, and the third point on the line through $P$ and $O$ represents the inverse of $P$. Hence all group axioms hold.