Averages of elliptic curve constants (Q842378): Difference between revisions

Let \(E/\mathbb{Q}\) be an elliptic curve with Weierstrass equation \(y^2=x^3+ax+b\) and let \(\mathcal{F}(A,B)\) be the set of such curves as \((a,b)\) varies in \(([-A,A]\times [-B,B])\bigcap \mathbb{Z}^2\) (if \(A\) and/or \(B\) depend on a parameter \(x\) then we simply write \(\mathcal{F}(x)\) for \(\mathcal{F}(A(x),B(x))\,\)). The paper examines the constants which appear in three conjectures (namely the Lang-Trotter conjecture, the Koblitz conjecture and the cyclicity conjecture) all having the form \[ \pi_E(x) \sim C_E f(x)\qquad \text{as}\;x\rightarrow \infty \;, \] where \(C_E\) is a constant, \(f\) an explicit function and \(\pi_E(x)\) is the cardinality of the set of primes \(p\leq x\) of good reduction for \(E\) and such that \(E_p(\mathbb{F}_p)\) (\(E_p\) is the reduction of \(E\) at \(p\)) satisfies certain conditions: namely \(p+1-|E_p(\mathbb{F}_p)|=r\) (for some fixed \(r\)) (Lang-Trotter), \(|E_p(\mathbb{F}_p)|\) is prime (Koblitz) and \(E_p(\mathbb{F}_p)\) is cyclic (cyclicity). Many authors have proved average results for these conjectures of the type \[ \frac{1}{|\mathcal{F}(x)|} \sum_{E\in \mathcal{F}(x)} \pi_E(x) \sim Cf(x)\qquad \text{as}\;x\rightarrow \infty \;, \] where \(C\) is the average constant and \(f\) is the same appearing in the conjecture. The paper deals with the compatibility between \(C_E\) and \(C\). Assuming that there exists a constant \(c\) such that for any prime \(p\geq c\) and any \(E/\mathbb{Q}\) without complex multiplication \(\mathrm{Gal}(\mathbb{Q}(E[p])/\mathbb{Q})\simeq GL_2(\mathbb{F}_p)\), the author proves an upper bound for \[ \frac{1}{|\mathcal{F}(A,B)|} \sum_{E\in \mathcal{F}(A,B)} |C_E-C|^k \] (for any positive integer \(k\)) only depending on \(A\), \(B\) and \(k\). In some cases this bound leads to the compatibility \[ \frac{1}{|\mathcal{F}(x)|} \sum_{E\in \mathcal{F}(x)} C_E \rightarrow C \qquad \text{as}\;x\rightarrow \infty \;. \] The author presents all the constants explicitly and then proves the upper bound by splitting the sum \(\frac{1}{|\mathcal{F}(A,B)|} \sum_{E\in \mathcal{F}(A,B)} |C_E-C|^k\) in two sets: the Serre curves (the ones for which the image of \(\mathrm{Gal}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}/\mathbb{Q})\) in \(GL_2(\widehat{\mathbb{Z}})\) under the usual representation \(\varphi_E\) associated to \(E\) has index 2, i.e. it is as large as possible) and the non-Serre curves (the only ones for which the hypothesis on \(\mathrm{Gal}(\mathbb{Q}(E[p])/\mathbb{Q})\) is needed).