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An elliptic curve works over every algebraically closed field, including one algebraic over a finite field. Give it explicitly in byIn the first case the only point at infinity is , where the derivative with respect to is nonzero. In the affine chart , a singular point of an algebraic variety would have , , and . The possible roots cannot satisfy the last equation in characteristic different from : at it is , and at it is . In the second case the three homogeneous partial derivatives are , up to harmless signs, and cannot vanish simultaneously at a projective point. Thus both cubics are smooth varieties. A reducible plane cubic would have intersecting positive-degree components by Bézout theorem, and be singular at an intersection; therefore these smooth cubics are irreducible varieties. The genus-degree formula gives . With the marked point they are elliptic curves.
For a smooth algebraic curve, its divisor class group is its Picard group. Its degree-zero subgroup isThe map gives an isomorphism of abelian groupsTo recall why it is a bijection, Riemann-Roch theorem in geometric genus one says every degree-one divisor class has exactly one independent section: a canonical divisor has degree zero, so the dual degree- term has no section. Thus the class contains one effective divisor on an algebraic curve of degree one, namely a point , and that point is unique. Translating by gives the claimed bijection; this is precisely the chord-and-tangent group law on the elliptic curve.
Choose a prime integer different from . The multiplication-by-n morphism has derivative times the identity at , so it is nonconstant. A nonconstant morphism of algebraic varieties between smooth projective curves is surjective: its image is closed by proper morphism and cannot have algebraic dimension zero. Since is an algebraically closed field, this makes surjective on -points. ThereforeYet is infinite. For each , the affine equation has a solution for in the algebraically closed field; since is infinite, this gives infinitely many points.
By the Fundamental theorem of finitely generated abelian groups, a finitely generated abelian group satisfying has no free part and is a finite torsion group of order prime to . The infinite group cannot have this property while being finitely generated. Thus is not finitely generated. A subgroup of a finitely generated abelian group is finitely generated, soThis proof uses divisibility and infinitude, rather than uncountability, so it remains valid over countable algebraically closed fields.