The size of Selmer groups for the congruent number problem. II. With an appendix by P. Monsky. (Q1340642)

In a previous paper [*] [the author, Invent. Math. 111, No. 1, 171--195 (1993; Zbl 0808.11041)] the author studied the distribution of the algebraic rank \(r(D)\) of the elliptic curve \(E_ D\): \(y^ 2 = x^ 3 - D^ 2x\). The positivity of \(r(D)\) is equivalent to \(D\) being a congruent number. As in [*] the author uses the method of descents being particularly interested in the ``full 2-descent''. The number of 2- descents is the order of the Selmer group \(S^{(2)}\) which is equal to \(2^{2 + s(D)}\), where \(s(D)\) is called the Selmer rank of \(E_ D\) and \(r(D) \leq s(D)\). The author completes his previous result concerning the distribution of \(s(D)\). More precisely he proves that given \(h = 1,3,5\) or 7 and \(k \geq 1\) a fixed integer then \[ \sum_{D \in S(X,h)} 2^{ks(D)} = c_ k\;\# S(X,h) + o_ k (X), \quad \text{as } X \to \infty, \] where \(c_ k = \prod^ k_{j=1} (1+2^ j)\), \(h\) is an odd integer and \(S(X,H) = \{D \equiv h \pmod 8\); \(1 \leq D \leq X,D\) square free\}. From this result he obtains that if \(h = 1\) or 3 and \(r\) is even, or if \(h = 5\) or 7 and \(r\) is odd, then \[ \# \{D \in S(X,h);\;s(D) = r\} \sim d_ r\;\# S(X,h), \quad \text{as} \quad X \to \infty, \] where \(d_ r = (\lambda 2^ r)/(\prod_{1 \leq j \leq r} (2^ j-1))\), for \(r \geq 0\), and \(\lambda = \prod_{n \geq 1} (1 + 2^{-n})^{-1}\). Furthermore, the former result also implies, as in [*], the following average estimates for \(s(D)\): \[ \sum_{D \in S(X,h)} s(D) = c'\;\# S(X,h) + o(X), \quad \text{as} \quad X \to \infty, \] where \(c' = \sum_{k \geq 0} {1 \over 2^ k+1} \pm {1 \over 2} \prod_{k \geq 1} ({1-2^{-k} \over 1 + 2^{-k}})\), the positive sign appears in the case where \(h=5\) or 7 and the negative one in the case where \(h = 1\) or 3. Similar inequalities are obtained replacing \(s(D)\) by \(r(D)\) taking into account that \(r(D) \leq s(D)\). One interesting remark in the paper concerns the parity condition which was unproved in [*], i.e., that \(s(D)\) is even if \(D \equiv 1\) or \(3 \pmod 8\), and \(s(D)\) is odd if \(D \equiv 5\) or \(7 \pmod 8\), which is proved in this paper in an appendix due to \textit{P. Monsky}, and gives a method for performing numerical calculations of the exact frequency of the Selmer ranks.