On the non-vanishing of \(p\)-adic heights on CM abelian varieties, and the arithmetic of Katz \(p\)-adic \(L\)-functions (Q2027760)

The main result of the paper is a non-vanishing result for the \(p\)-adic Néron-Tate height pairing of an abelian variety \(A\) over a number field \(E\), under suitable hypotheses on \(A\). The \(p\)-adic Néron-Tate height of \(A\) is a bilinear form \(A(E') \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} \mathbb{Q} \times A^\lor(E')\otimes_\mathbb{Z} \mathbb{Q} \to L\), where \(A^\lor\) is the dual abelian variety of \(A\), for any finite extensions \(E'/E\) and \(L/\mathbb{Q}_p\), that has been defined in [\textit{J. Nekovář}, Prog. Math. 108, 127--202 (1993; Zbl 0859.11038)] and depends on the choice of a \(p\)-adic logarithm and a splitting of the Hodge filtration of \(H_{\mathrm{dR}}^1(A/E_v)\), for a prime \(v | p\). Differently from the global Néron-Tate height pairing, the \(p\)-adic Néron-Tate height pairing can be zero for some choice of the \(p\)-adic logarithm. For the specific choice of the cyclotomic logarithm, it is conjectured that this pairing is not null and even more that it is a non-degenerate pairing. Such conjectures have important arithmetical consequences, for example in relation to the \(p\)-adic Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture. More precisely, the main non-vanishing result of the paper is stated for the isotypic components \(A(\chi)\) of \(A(E') \otimes_\mathbb{Z} \mathbb{Q}\) and \(A^\lor(\chi^{-1})\) of \(A(E') \otimes_\mathbb{Z} \mathbb{Q}\) with respect to the Galois action. It is proved that if \(A\) is simple and has complex multiplication, \(E\) is a complex multiplication field, \(A\) has root number \(-1\), \(A\) has potentially ordinary reduction over any prime of \(E\) over \(p\), the extension of \(E\) over its maximal totally real field is ramified, \(p \not\mid 2 D_F \frac{h_E}{h_F}\), where \(D_F\) is the discriminant of \(F\), \(h_E\) the class number of \(E\), \(h_F\) the class number of \(F\) and a further technical assumption on \(A\), then the \(p\)-adic Néron-Tate height pairing is non-vanishing for almost all finite-order anti-cyclotomic character of \(E\) unramified outside \(p\). Almost all meaning that the set of characters for which the pairing can vanish is not Zariski dense in the moduli space of anti-cyclotomic characters. This result is obtained as a consequence of a Gross-Zagier formula for certain anti-cyclotomic \(p\)-adic Katz \(L\)-functions and a non-vanishing result for the derivative of the relevant \(p\)-adic Katz \(L\)-functions by the first author. This method for proving the non-vanishing result for the \(p\)-adic Néron-Tate height pairing is novel and differs from other methods used to prove similar results, for example in the case when \(A\) is an elliptic curve. The paper is structured in two sections. The first introductory section explains the main results, the strategy of the proof, and the relations with similar results in the literature. The first part is well written and accessible to non-experts. The second part of the paper is of a more technical nature and contains the proofs of the main results as well as the auxiliary results needed in the proof.