The underlying real algebraic structure of complex elliptic curves (Q810609)

The underlying real algebraic structure \(X_{{\mathbb{R}}}\) of a complex abelian variety X is a real algebraic group. It turns out that, for complex abelian varieties X and Y, \(X_{{\mathbb{R}}}\) and \(Y_{{\mathbb{R}}}\) are birationally isomorphic if and only if they are isomorphic as real algebraic groups. Using this remarkable property, we are able to classify the underlying real algebraic structure of complex elliptic curves as real algebraic surfaces. Here is a short summary of the main results: Let E and F be complex elliptic curves. Suppose that E has complex multiplication, i.e. the ring of endomorphisms End(E) is not \({\mathbb{Z}}\). We prove that then \(F_{{\mathbb{R}}}\) is isomorphic to \(E_{{\mathbb{R}}}\) if and only if End(F) and End(E) are isomorphic. Let, for a real algebraic variety M, \(\rho\) (M) be the number of non-isomorphic complex algebraic varieties Y such that \(Y_{{\mathbb{R}}}\) is isomorphic to M. It follows that for an elliptic curve E with complex multiplication, \(\rho (E_{{\mathbb{R}}})\) is equal to the class number of the ring End(E). Furthermore, we prove that whenever the complex elliptic curve E is without complex multiplication, \(\rho (E_{{\mathbb{R}}})=1, 2\) or 4. We conclude that \(\rho\) (M) is finite for every real algebraic torus M.