Computing the rank of elliptic curves over real quadratic number fields of class number 1 (Q4240589)

Let \(K\) be an algebraic number field and denote by \(E(K)\) an elliptic curve over \(K\). By a theorem of L. J. Mordell and A. Weil, \(E(K)\) is a finitely generated abelian group, but up to now no deterministic algorithm for computing the rank and a basis of \(E(K)\) is known. A lot of effort was made in the recent years to develop algorithms which determine these basis data in the simplest case \(K=\mathbb{Q}\) [see e.g. \textit{H. G. Zimmer}, Basic algorithms for elliptic curves. In: Number theory. Diophantine, computational and algebraic aspects. Proc. Int. Conf., Eger 1996, 541-595 (1998)]. Such methods are implemented in the computer algebra systems apecs, MAGMA, mwrank and SIMATH. One of the most efficient methods for computing the rank of the Mordell-Weil group of an elliptic curve is the 2-descent, which was presented by \textit{B. J. Birch} and \textit{H. P. F. Swinnerton-Dyer} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 212, 7-25 (1963; Zbl 0118.27601)]. The aim of the present paper is to describe how to carry out general 2-descent over real quadratic number fields \(K\) with class number one. The main principle of general 2-descent is to consider 2-coverings or homogeneous spaces of \(E,\) which are represented by quartic equations of the form \[ Y^2 = g(X) = aX^4 + bX^3 + cX^2 + dX + e \] with \(a,b,c,d,e \in K.\) Two homogeneous spaces \( Y^2 = g_1(X)\) and \( Y^2 = g_2(X)\) are called equivalent if \[ g_2(X) = \mu^2 (\gamma X + \delta)^4 g_1 ( (\alpha X + \beta)/(\gamma X + \delta)) \] for some \(\alpha, \beta, \gamma, \delta, \mu \in K\) with \((\alpha \delta - \beta \gamma) \mu \in K^*.\) It is well known that there exist only finitely many equivalence classes of homogeneous spaces with given integer invariants \(I,J.\) The first basic result of this paper is the presentation of an algorithm, which enables one to find representatives of a complete set of non-equivalent homogeneous spaces with given pair \((I,J).\) For a given elliptic curve \(E\), there may exist several pairs \((I,J)\) for which homogeneous spaces must be determined. The second basic result is the complete description of the relevant \((I,J)\) pairs. Numerical examples over the fields \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{5})\), \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2})\), \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{3})\), and \( \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{13})\) finish the paper.