Modular curves of prime-power level with infinitely many rational points (Q2364134)

Let \(E\) be an elliptic curve defined over \(\mathbb{Q}\). For each positive integer \(N\), let \(E[N]\) denote the \(N\)-torsion subgroup of \(E(\overline{\mathbb{Q}})\). The natural action of the absolute Galois group induce a Galois representation \(\rho_{E}:\, \text{Gal}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}/\mathbb{Q}) \rightarrow \text{GL}_{2}(\widehat{\mathbb{Q}})\). If \(E\) does not have complex multiplication, then the image of this Galois representation is an open subgroup of \(\text{GL}_{2}(\widehat{\mathbb{Q}})\) by Serre's open image theorem, and hence it is of finite index in \(\text{GL}_{2}(\widehat{\mathbb{Q}})\). Let \(G\) be an open subgroup of \(\text{GL}_{2}(\widehat{\mathbb{Q}})\) that satisfies \(\text{det}(G)=\widehat{\mathbb{Z}}^{\times}\) and \(-\text{Id}\in G\). Let \(N\) be the least positive integer such that \(G\) is the inverse image of its image under the reduction map \(\text{GL}_{2}(\widehat{\mathbb{Q}})\rightarrow\text{GL}_2(\mathbb{Z}/N\mathbb{Z})\); we call \(N\) the level of \(G\). Associated to \(G\), there is a modular curve \(X_G\). When \(G=\text{GL}_{2}(\widehat{\mathbb{Q}})\), the modular curve \(X_G\) is the \(j\)-line. Otherwise, the inclusion \(G\subseteq\text{GL}_{2}(\widehat{\mathbb{Q}})\) gives rise to a natural morphism \(\pi_G:\,X_G\rightarrow\mathbb{P}^{1}_{\mathbb{Q}}\). In this article, the authors give an explicit description of all such subgroups \(G \subseteq \text{GL}_{2}(\widehat{\mathbb{Q}})\) for which the modular curve \(X_G\) has infinitely many rational points in the special case where the level \(N\) of \(G\) is a prime power. Moreover, they give explicit model for \(X_G\) and the morphism \(\pi_G\). Up to conjugacy, they determine a complete list of the \(248\) such groups of prime power level for which \(X_G(\mathbb{Q})\) is infinite. This list consists of \(220\) modular curves of genus \(0\) and \(28\) modular curves of genus \(1\). The list with the groups \(G\), the modular curves \(X_G\) and the morphisms \(\pi_G\) is given in electronic form at the authors websites. One can use these maps to explicitly construct infinite families of elliptic curves \(E/\mathbb{Q}\) with distinct \(j\)-invariants whole \(\ell\)-adic Galois images match the listed groups \(G\). In order to compute a preliminary list of groups the authors use the tables of \textit{C. J. Cummins} and \textit{S. Pauli} [Exp. Math. 12, No. 2, 243--255 (2003; Zbl 1060.11021); \url{http://www.uncg.edu/mat/faculty/pauli/congruence/}] of congruence subgroups of low genus. For computing the genus \(0\) maps they construct a hauptmodul (meromorphic functions with only a pole at the cusp at \(\infty\)) for some congruence subgroups. To deal with the genus \(1\) case, they compute the equations by determining the isogeny class of the elliptic curves \(X_G\) by counting its number of points over finite fields for sufficiently many primes. Contemporary to the authors' work, \textit{J. Rouse} and \textit{D. Zureick-Brown} [Res. Number Theory 1, Paper No. 12, 34 p. (2015; Zbl 1397.11095)] independently computed explicit models for all modular curves \(X_G/\mathbb{Q}\) of \(2\)-power level that have a non-cuspidal rational point.