Second isogeny descents and the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjectural formula (Q2376719)

Let \(\varphi: E\to E'\) be an isogeny of prime degree \(\ell\) between elliptic curves defined over a number field \(k\) and denote by \(\varphi'\) its dual isogeny. The \(\ell\)-part of the Selmer group of \(E\) (denoted \(\text{Sel}^{(\ell)}(E/k)\,\)) gives relevant informations on the rank of the elliptic curve \(E\) and on the order of the Tate-Shafarevich group \(\text Ш(E/k)\), thanks to the usual exact sequence \[ E(k)/\ell E(k) \hookrightarrow \text{Sel}^{(\ell)}(E/k) \twoheadrightarrow \text Ш(E/k)[\ell] \;. \] Moreover there are \(\varphi\) and \(\varphi'\) Selmer groups \(\text{Sel}^{(\varphi)}(E'/k)\subseteq H^1(k,E[\varphi])\) and \(\text{Sel}^{(\varphi')}(E/k)\subseteq H^1(k,E'[\varphi'])\) (these are the notations of the paper under review, which differ from the standard ones of e.g. \textit{E. F. Schaefer} and \textit{M. Stoll} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 356, No. 3, 1209--1231 (2004; Zbl 1119.11029)]), which fit in the sequence \[ \frac{E'(k)[\varphi']}{\varphi(E(k)[\ell])} \hookrightarrow \text{Sel}^{(\varphi)}(E'/k) \rightarrow \text{Sel}^{(\ell)}(E/k) \rightarrow \text{Sel}^{(\varphi')}(E/k) \twoheadrightarrow \frac{\text Ш(E'/k)[\varphi']}{\varphi(\text Ш(E/k)[\ell])}\,. \] The paper deals with a descent method to compute the last term of this sequence: once that is known the usual \(\varphi\) and \(\varphi'\) descents provide (at least in principle) a full \(\ell\)-descent to compute \(\text{Sel}^{(\ell)}(E/k)\). The descent method employs \(\varphi\)-coverings \(\pi:D\rightarrow C\) of a \(k\)-torsor under \(E'\,\), i.e., a covering between curves which fit into a commutative diagram \[ \begin{tikzcd} D \ar[r, "\psi_D"] \ar[d, "\pi" '] & E \ar[d, "\varphi"] \\ C \ar[r, "\psi_C"] & E^\prime \end{tikzcd} \] (where \(\psi_C\), \(\psi_D\) are isomorphisms over \(\overline{k}\)). Using some results and techniques of \textit{B. Creutz} [Math. Comput. 83, No. 285, 365--409 (2014; Zbl 1285.11084)], the authors are able to represent isomorphism classes of \(\varphi\)-coverings (locally solvable everywhere) as elements of a quotient of the multiplicative group of some algebra \(\mathcal{H}_k\) defined via maps on divisor classes of \(\overline{C}:=C\otimes_k\overline{k}\). The analysis of this quotient provides a way to bound or compute exactly the order of some terms of the previous 5-term exact sequence. The authors are also able to describe a map in the opposite direction, i.e., construct an explicit \(\varphi\)-covering (made up of \(\ell(\ell-3)/2\) quadrics or, if \(\ell=3\), a ternary cubic) from an element of \(\mathcal{H}_k\,\). As an application of these explicit constructions the authors complete the verification of the full Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture for all elliptic curves defined over \(\mathbb{Q}\), of conductor \(<5000\) and analytic rank \(\leq 1\): indeed they are able to deal with the 5 and 7 parts of the conjecture for the 11 curves which were left out by previously known computational methods. In the final section, the computations for 2 of the 11 curves are explicitly carried out and the paper ends with the interesting example of a full 5 descent for an elliptic curve of rank 1 over \(\mathbb{Q}\), whose Mordell-Weil group is generated (modulo torsion) by a point of height \(\sim 242\).