The Selmer groups of elliptic curves \(E_n: y^2=x^3+nx\) (Q6179264)

Let \(n\) be a fixed square-free integer and consider the elliptic curve \(E_{n}: y^2=x^3-nx\). As was proved by Tate, if \(m\) is the number of odd prime divisors of \(n\), then the rank of \(E_{n}(\mathbb{Q})\) is bounded by \(2m+a\), where \(a\in\{0, 1\}\) depending on the parity of \(n\). In the paper, by introducing certain matrices defined over \(\mathbb{F}_{2}\), the authors are able to give more precise upper bound for the rank of \(E_{n}\). More precisely, let \(n=(-1)^{\varepsilon}2^\delta p_{1}\cdots p_{m}\) and \(n'\) be an odd part of \(n\). Let us put \(A=(a_{ij}), D=\operatorname{diag}\left(\left[\frac{u}{p{i}}\right]\right)\), where \(a_{ij}=\left[\frac{p_{i}}{p{j}}\right]\) and \(\left[\frac{x}{q}\right]=\left(1-\left(\frac{x}{q}\right)\right)/2\), where \(\left(\frac{\cdot}{q}\right)\) is Jacobi symbol and \(q\) is an odd integer. Then, the main result of the paper states that \[ \operatorname{rank} E_{n}(\mathbb{Q})\leq \begin{cases} 2m+1-\operatorname{rank}(A+D_{2})-\operatorname{rank}(A+D_{-2}) &\text{if \(n\) is even} \\ 2m- \operatorname{rank}(A)-\operatorname{rank}(A+D_{-1})&\text{if \(n\) is odd.} \end{cases} \] The proof of this theorem relies on a careful analysis of the Selmer group associated to the curve \(E_{n}\).