Arithmetic of elliptic curves and diophantine equations (Q1809047)

This paper is an interesting survey of methods which connect the theory of modular forms with the study of diophantine equations of the form \(ax^r+b y^s+cz^t=0\). In Part 1, the author describes the process of going from the problem of the determination of solutions to the diophantine equation \(a+b+c=0\) to problems of characterization of the isogeny class of an elliptic curve over \(\mathbb{Q}\) by the action of \(\text{Gal}(\overline\mathbb{Q}/ \mathbb{Q})\) on a few torsion points of the curve. Let \(E\) be an elliptic curve over \(\mathbb{Q}\) without complex multiplication. A theorem of J. P. Serre asserts that there is a number \(B_E\) such that for every prime \(p>B_E\) the Galois representation \[ \rho_{E,p}: \text{Gal} (\overline \mathbb{Q}/ \mathbb{Q})\to \text{GL} \bigl(E[p] \bigr)\equiv \text{GL}_2(\mathbb{F}_p) \] is surjective. Further, Serre proposed the following problem which is still unsolved: \[ \text{``Can the number }B_E\text{ be chosen uniformly?''} \] In Part 2 of this paper the author deals mainly with this problem. Let \(E\) be a modular elliptic curve over \(\mathbb{Q}\) of conductor \(N\) and \(\delta_E\) be the degree of the corresponding minimal modular parametrization \(X_0(N)\to E\). The degree conjecture asserts that for every real number \(\varepsilon>0\) there exists a number \(T_\varepsilon\) independent of \(E\) such that \(\delta_E<T_\varepsilon N^{2+ \varepsilon}\). The Part 3 of this paper is devoted to the study of the degree conjecture.