Loops of isogeny graphs of supersingular elliptic curves at \(j=0\) (Q2422193)

Let \(\ell\) and \(p\) be two distinct prime numbers. The graph whose vertices are \(\mathbb{F}_{p^2}\)-isomorphism classes of supersingular elliptic curves defined over \(\mathbb{F}_{p^2}\) and edges are equivalent classes of \(\ell\)-isogenies defined over \(\mathbb{F}_{p^2}\) is called the \(\ell\)-isogeny graph over \(\mathbb{F}_{p^2}\) and is denoted by \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2})\). Further, for a fixed integer \(t\), we denote by \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},t)\) the subgraph of \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2})\) consisting of vertices whose underlying curves are of Frobenius trace \(t\) and edges connecting the vertices. The graph \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2})\) is the disjoint union of \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},0)\), \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},\pm p)\) and \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},\pm 2p)\). In [\textit{G. Adj} et al., Finite Fields Appl. 55, 268--283 (2019; Zbl 1436.11067)], the subgraphs \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},0)\) and \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},\pm p)\) are determined. Since \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},2p)\) and \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},-2p)\) are isomorphic, the study of \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2})\) is reduced to the study of \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},-2p)\). An interesting problem is the determination of the number of loops in \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},-2p)\). Let \(E_0\) be the elliptic curve defined by \(y^2 = x^3 + 1\) over \(\mathbb{F}_{p^2}\). If \(p> 4\ell\), then the number of loops of \(E_0\) in the subgraph \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},-2p)\) is determined in the above paper. In this note, the bound \(p> 4\ell\) is improved to \(p> 3\ell\). More precisely, if \(p> 3\ell\), then it is proved that \(E_0\) has exactly two loops in \(G(\mathbb{F}_{p^2},-2p)\), provided that \(\ell \equiv 1\, (\bmod\, 3)\) and no loop, provided that \(\ell\equiv 2\, (\bmod\, 3)\) or \(\ell = 3\).