No label defined (Q4239470)

Let \(E\) be an elliptic curve over (\(\mathbb{Q}\). For any prime number \(p\), the number of points on the reduced curve modulo \(p\) equals \(\#E(\mathbb{F}_p)= p+1- a_p(E)\), where \(a_p(E)\) is the trace of the Frobenius morphism of \(E/\mathbb{F}_p\). Let \(r\) be a fixed integer, what is the distribution of the primes \(p\) with \(a_p(E)= r\)? Let \(\pi_E^r(x)= \#\{p\leq x: a_p(E)=r\}\). Lang and Trotter conjectured that (with some exceptions) \(\pi_E^r(x)\sim C_{E,r}\cdot \sqrt{x}/\log x\) as \(x\to\infty\) with a well defined constant \(C_{E,r}\). In this paper the authors consider the average \((4AB)^{-1} \sum \pi_{E(a,b)}^r(x)\), where they sum over all elliptic curves \(E(a,b): Y^2= X^3+ aX+ b\) with \(|a|\leq A\) and \(|b|\leq B\). They can prove an asymptotic behavior of this average which is predicted by the conjecture of Lang/Trotter. Their proof is based on rewriting the average as an average of special values of Dirichlet \(L\)-series and on technical estimations of these values.