Critical values of symmetric power \(L\)-functions (Q1011933)

In this paper the authors study the critical values of symmetric power \(L\)-functions attached to elliptic curves defined over \(\mathbb{Q}\), in view of the Bloch-Kato conjecture. They first show how to obtain a Deligne period, then they calculate the Tamagawa factors which appear in the Bloch-Kato conjecture. More precisely, they compute the \(\ell\)-part of the Tamagawa factor at a prime \(p\) of multiplicative reduction (or potentially multiplicative reduction if \(p\neq 2\)), for any prime \(\ell\neq p\). Finally, they bound torsion terms (which also appear in the Bloch-Kato conjecture), which they use, along with their computations for the algebraic parts of the relevant \(L\)-values to reach conclusions about the size of the Shafarevich-Tate group. For example, suppose \(n=2l+1\) is an odd integer, and consider the \(n\)th symmetric square \(\text{Sym}^nE\). Assume that \(L(\text{Sym}^nE,l+1)\neq0\). Then the Bloch-Kato conjecture reads (up to sign) as follows: Conjecture (Bloch-Kato): \[ \frac{L(\text{Sym}^nE,l+1)}{c^+(\text{Sym}^nM(l+1))}=\frac{(\prod_{p\leq \infty} c_p)|ST|}{|H^0(\mathbb Q,A(l+1))|^2} \] Here, \(M\) is the motive \(h^1(E)\), for a motive \(X\), \(X(k)\) stands for the \(k\)th Tate twist, and \(c^+(\text{Sym}^nM(l+1))\) is the Deligne-period (which the authors carefully compute in this paper), \(ST\) is the Shafarevich-Tate group, \(c_p\) is the Tamagawa factor at \(p\) and \(| H^0(\mathbb{Q},A(l+1))|^2\) is the torsion term mentioned above. A result of \textit{M. Flach} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 412, 113--127 (1990; Zbl 0711.14001)] implies in this case that the order of the Shafarevich-Tate group (if finite) is a perfect square or a twice a perfect square. The bounds obtained by the authors for the Tamagawa factors and the torsion terms can be used to find (large enough) primes which should only contribute to the order of the Shafarevich-Tate group. In their computational examples, they use this fact to indicate how their calculations go hand-in-hand with Flach's afore-mentioned theorem.