Periodicity of the division polynomials on an elliptic curve (Q2474597)

Let \(E\) be an elliptic curve defined over a finite field \(\mathbb F_{q}\) of characteristic \(p\neq 2,3\) and let \(P=(x,y)\in E(\overline{\mathbb F_{q}})\). For \(r\geq 2\), write \(rP=(x_{r},y_{r})\). Then \(x_{r}\) and \(y_{r}\) can be expressed in terms of so-called division polynomials \(\psi_{r}(x,y)\). More precisely, setting \(\psi_{r}(x,y)=\psi_{r}\) for brevity, we have \[ \begin{aligned} x_{r} &= x-\frac{\psi_{r-1}\psi_{r+1}}{\psi_{r}^{2}}\\ y_{r} &= \frac{\psi_{r+2}\psi_{r-1}^{2}-\psi_{r-2}\psi_{r+1} ^{2}}{4y\psi_{r}^{3}}. \end{aligned} \] The first few \(\psi_{r}(x,y)\) are \(0,1,2y,3x^{4}+6ax^{2}+12bx-a^{2},\dots\). It is shown in this paper that \(rP=0\) exacly when \(\psi_{r}(x,y)\equiv 0\pmod p\). The main theorem contains the following periodicity statement. Assume that \(P\) has exact order \(r\geq 3\). Then there exists a \(w\in\overline{\mathbb F_{q}}\) (depending on \(P\)) such that, for every \(k,n\in\mathbb Z\), \[ \psi_{rk+n}(x,y)= (-1)^{k^{2}}w^{k(2n+kr)/\varepsilon}\psi_{n}(x,y), \] where \(\varepsilon=1\) or 2 according as \(r\) is odd or even. The main theorem also covers the case \(r=2\). The following is a corollary: if \(P\) has exact order \(r\geq 2\), then the sequence \((\psi_{n}(P))_{n\in\mathbb N}\) is periodic with period dividing \(rt\), where \(t\mid q-1\) if \(r\geq 3\) and \(t\mid 2q-2\) if \(r=2\). A table of examples is given. It contains the following example: if \(E:y^{2}=x^{3}+x+1\) over \(\mathbb F_{23}\) with \(P=(18,20)\) (so \(r=28\)), then the period of the above sequence is \(616\). The author works only within the theory of finite fields, without ever passing to characteristic zero.