On group orders of rational points of elliptic curves (Q4802193)

In this work the author presents a conjecture about the distribution of almost prime group orders of elliptic curves -- without complex multiplication and defined over the field \(\mathbb Q\) or with CM and defined over the Hilbert class field of the endomorphism ring -- reduced modulo a prime ideal. Let \(E\) be an elliptic curve defined over a number field \(F\); the author starts with some considerations on the Galois groups \(\text{Gal}(F(E[\ell])/F)\), where \(E[\ell]\) is the group of \(\ell\) torsion points on \(E\) defined over the algebraic closure of \(F\). Let \(\mathfrak p\) be an unramified prime of degree one of \(F\) such that \(E\) has good reduction at \(\mathfrak p\); then \(E\bmod {\mathfrak p}\) is isomorphic to an elliptic curve \(\overline{E}\) defined over \(\mathbb F_p\). Let \(N_p := \# \overline{E}(\mathbb F_p)\), then the author proves results on the probability that \(N_p\) is divisible by \(\ell^e\) but not by a higher power of \(\ell\). She then uses these results and heuristics about almost prime orders to produce the above mentioned conjecture; she also presents numerical results that support the conjecture. The paper ends with a comparison with results previously obtained by \textit{S. D. Galbraith} and \textit{J. McKee} [J. Lond. Math. Soc. (2) 62, 671-684 (2000; Zbl 1010.11033)]. The general goal of these investigations is to help in finding elliptic curves that are good for applications in cryptography.