We exhibit a method to use continued fractions in function fields to find new families of hyperelliptic curves over the rationals with given torsion order in their Jacobians. To show the utility of the method, we exhibit a new infinite family of curves over $\mathbb Q$ with genus two whose Jacobians have torsion order eleven.
{\bf In this updated version, we correct an error in the initial paper:} The ``new" family claimed in the original Theorem~1 was pointed out by Professor D.~Lorenzini to have elements isomorphic with elements in Flynn's family (as defined in the paper); his guess that the families were the same up to element-wise isomorphism is correct. Here, we give a family that is new; the old proof, now free of clerical error (we had replaced our $g_u(x)$ by $1+g_u(x)$ when determining Igusa invariants), holds. Changes from the original version are flagged by {\color{red} UPDATED}; there are three of these: the new family $g_u(x)$; its partial quotients; the way to solve in the naive approach to find this new family. (We also added an acknowledgement section.) Finally, as an appendix we include a PDF export of Maple calculations verifying our correction.
The classical continued fraction is generalized for studying the rational approximation problem on multi-formal Laurent series in this paper, the construction is called m-continued fraction. It is proved that the approximants of an m-continued fraction converge to a multi-formal Laurent series, and are best rational approximations to it; conversely for any multi-formal Laurent series an algorithm called m-CF transform is introduced to obtain its m-continued fraction expansions; moreover, strict m-continued fractions, which are m-continued fractions imposed with some additional conditions, and …
Consider the representation of a rational number as a continued fraction, associated with "odd" Euclidean algorithm. In this paper we prove certain properties for the limit distribution function for sequences of rationals with bounded sum of partial quotients
Using the division polynomials for elliptic curves in Weierstrass form, it shown that the group of rational points on the curve $H: ky(yy - 1) = lx(xx - 1)$ is torsion-free.
We give a complete characterization for the rational torsion of an elliptic curve in terms of the (non-)existence of integral solutions of a system of diophantine equations.
Consider the representation of a rational number in the form, associated with "centered" Euclidean algorithm. We prove a new formula for the limit distribution function for sequences of rationals with bounded sum of partial quotients.
If P is an algebraic point on a commutative group scheme A/K, then P is _almost_rational_ if no two non-trivial Galois conjugates sigma(P), tau(P), have sum equal to 2P. In this paper, we classify almost rational torsion points on semistable elliptic curves over Q.
We classify the possible torsion structures of rational elliptic curves over cubic fields. Along the way we find a previously unknown torsion structure over a cubic field, $\Z /21 \Z$, which corresponds to a sporadic point on $X_1(21)$ of degree 3, which is the lowest possible degree of a sporadic point on a modular curve $X_1(n)$.
Let $E/\mathbb{Q}$ be an elliptic curve over the rational numbers. It is known, by the work of Bombieri and Zannier, that if $E$ has full rational $2$-torsion, the number $N_E(B)$ of rational points with Weil height bounded by $B$ is $\exp\left(O\left(\frac{\log B}{\sqrt{\log\log B}}\right)\right)$. In this paper we exploit the method of descent via $2$-isogeny to extend this result to elliptic curves with just one nontrivial rational $2$-torsion point. Moreover, we make use of a result of Petsche to derive the stronger upper bound $N_{E}(B) = \exp\left(O\left(\frac{\log B}{\log\log B}\right)\…
The classification of elliptic curves E over the rationals Q is studied according to their torsion subgroups E_{tors}(Q) of rational points. Explicit criteria for the classification are given when E_{tors}(Q) are cyclic groups with even orders. The generator points P of E_{tors}(Q) are also explicitly presented in each case. These results, together with recent results of K. Ono, completely solve the problem of the mentioned explicit classification when E has a rational point of order 2.
The continued logarithm algorithm was introduced by Gosper around 1978, and recently studied by Borwein, Calkin, Lindstrom, and Mattingly. In this note I show that the continued logarithm algorithm terminates in at most 2 log_2 p + O(1) steps on input a rational number p/q >= 1. Furthermore, this bound is tight, up to an additive constant.
Let $x$ be a periodic continued fraction with the initial block $0$ and the repeating block $c_1,\ldots,c_n$. So $x$ is a quadratic irrational of the form $x=a+\sqrt b$, where $a$, $b$ are rational numbers, $b>0$, $b$ not a square. The numbers $a$ and $\sqrt b$ are uniquely determined by $x$. In general it is difficult to say what the influence of a certain digit of the repeating block on the appearance of $x$ is. We highlight a noteworthy exception from this rule. Indeed, the magnitude of $2a$ is essentially determined by the last digit $c_n$ of the repeating block, the fractional part of $2a…
We study the rational torsion subgroup of the modular Jacobian $J_0(N)$ for $N$ a square-free integer. We give a new proof of a result of Ohta on a generalization of Ogg's conjecture: for a prime number $p \nmid 6N$, the $p$-primary part of the rational torsion subgroup equals that of the cuspidal subgroup. Whereas previous proofs of this result used explicit computations of the cardinalities of these groups, we instead use their structure as modules for the Hecke algebra.
We generalize a result of Frey [Fre88] on the Selmer group of twists of elliptic curves over Q with Q-rational torsion points to elliptic curves defined over number fields of small degree K with a K-rational point. We also provide examples of elliptic curves coming from [Zyw15] that satisfy the conditions of our Theorem B.
We prove that the family $\mathcal{I}_{F_0}$ of elliptic curves over number fields that are geometrically isogenous to an elliptic curve with $F_0$-rational $j$-invariant is typically bounded in torsion. Under an additional uniformity assumption, we also prove that the family $\mathcal{I}_{d_0}$ of elliptic curves over number fields that are geometrically isogenous to an elliptic curve with degree $d_0$ $j$-invariant is typically bounded in torsion.
We give explicit and asymptotic lower bounds for the quantity $|e^{s/t}-M/N|$ by studying a generalized continued fraction expansion of $e^{s/t}$. In cases $|s|\geq 3$ we improve existing results by extracting a large common factor from the numerators and the denominators of the convergents of that generalized continued fraction.
In this paper, we describe the construction of superelliptic curves with a rational point of prescribed order on their jacobians. The construction is based on Hensel's Lemma and produces for a given integer $N$ a superelliptic curve of genus linear in $N$ with a rational $N$-division point on the jacobian. The method is illustrated with multiple examples.
By Mazur's Torsion Theorem, there are fourteen possibilities for the non-trivial torsion subgroup $T$ of a rational elliptic curve. For each $T$, such that $E$ may have additive reduction at a prime $p$, we consider a parameterized family $E_T$ of elliptic curves with the property that they parameterize all elliptic curves $E/\mathbb{Q}$ which contain $T$ in their torsion subgroup. Using these parameterized families, we explicitly classify the Kodaira-Néron type, the conductor exponent, and the local Tamagawa number at each prime $p$ where $E/\mathbb{Q}$ has additive reduction. As a consequenc…
Let $E/\mathbb{Q}$ be an elliptic curve and let $\mathbb{Q}(D_4^\infty)$ be the compositum of all extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ whose Galois closure has Galois group isomorphic to a quotient of a subdirect product of a finite number of transitive subgroups of $D_4$. In this article we first show that $\mathbb{Q}(D_4^\infty)$ is in fact the compositum of all $D_4$ extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ and then we prove that the torsion subgroup of $E(\mathbb{Q}(D_4^\infty))$ is finite and determine the 24 possibilities for its structure. We also give a complete classification of the elliptic curves that have…
This note describes continued fraction representations for the rational approximations to the zeta function recently found by the author. It is tempting to think that these continued fractions might be analysed using a souped up version of the Worpitzky argument so as to produce zero-free regions for the approximations.
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, and let $K$ be a number field of degree four that is Galois over $\mathbb{Q}$. The goal of this article is to classify the different isomorphism types of $E(K)_{\text{tors}}$.
Let $p$ be a prime greater than 3. Consider the modular curve $X_0(3p)$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ and its Jacobian variety $J_0(3p)$ over $\mathbb{Q}$. Let $\mathcal{T}(3p)$ and $\mathcal{C}(3p)$ be the group of rational torsion points on $J_0(3p)$ and the cuspidal group of $J_0(3p)$, respectively. We prove that the $3$-primary subgroups of $\mathcal{T}(3p)$ and $\mathcal{C}(3p)$ coincide unless $p\equiv 1 \pmod 9$ and $3^{\frac{p-1}{3}} \equiv 1 \!\pmod {p}$.
In [2], the author claims that the fields $\mathbb{Q}(D_4^\infty)$ defined in the paper and the compositum of all $D_4$ extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ coincide. The proof of this claim depends on a misreading of a celebrated result by Shafarevich. The purpose is to salvage the main results of [2]. That is, the classification of torsion structures of $E$ defined over $\mathbb{Q}$ when base changed to the compositum of all $D_4$ extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ main results of [2]. All the main results in [2] are still correct except that we are no longer able to prove that these two fields are equal.
A family $\mathcal{F}$ of elliptic curves defined over number fields is said to be typically bounded in torsion if the torsion subgroups $E(F)[$tors$]$ of those elliptic curves $E_{/F}\in \mathcal{F}$ can be made uniformly bounded after removing from $\mathcal{F}$ those whose number field degrees lie in a subset of $\mathbb{Z}^+$ with arbitrarily small upper density. For every number field $F$, we prove unconditionally that the family $\mathcal{E}_F$ of elliptic curves defined over number fields and with $F$-rational $j$-invariant is typically bounded in torsion. For any integer $d\in\mathbb{Z…
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve over a number field $K$. Descent calculations on $E$ can be used to find upper bounds for the rank of the Mordell-Weil group, and to compute covering curves that assist in the search for generators of this group. The general method of 4-descent, developed in the PhD theses of Siksek, Womack and Stamminger, has been implemented in Magma (when $K={\mathbb Q}$) and works well for elliptic curves with sufficiently small discriminant. By extending work of Bremner and Cassels, we describe the improvements that can be made when $E$ has a rational 2-torsion point. In parti…
We consider the generalised Jacobian $J_{0}(N)_{\mathbf{m}}$ of the modular curve $X_{0}(N)$ of level $N$, with respect to the modulus $\mathbf{m}$ consisting of all cusps on the modular curve. When $N$ is odd, we determine the group structure of the rational torsion $J_{0}(N)_{\mathbf{m}}(\mathbb{Q})_{tor}$ up to $2$-primary and $l$-primary parts for any prime $l$ dividing $N$. Our results extend those of Wei--Yamazaki for squarefree levels and Yamazaki--Yang for prime-power levels.
This paper presents a new result concerning the distribution of 2-Selmer ranks in the quadratic twist family of an elliptic curve with a single point of order two that does not have a cyclic 4-isogeny defined over its two-division field. We prove that at least half of all the quadratic twists of such an elliptic curve have arbitrarily large 2-Selmer rank, showing that the distribution of 2-Selmer ranks in the quadratic twist family of such an elliptic curve differs from the distribution of 2-Selmer ranks in the quadratic twist family of an elliptic curve having either no rational two-torsion o…
Let $\frak{n}$ be a square-free ideal of $\mathbb{F}_q[T]$. We study the rational torsion subgroup of the Jacobian variety $J_0(\frak{n})$ of the Drinfeld modular curve $X_0(\frak{n})$. We prove that for any prime number $\ell$ not dividing $q(q-1)$, the $\ell$-primary part of this group coincides with that of the cuspidal divisor class group. We further determine the structure of the $\ell$-primary part of the cuspidal divisor class group for any prime $\ell$ not dividing $q-1$.
We construct examples of families of curves of genus 2 or 3 over Q whose Jacobians split completely and have various large rational torsion subgroups. For example, the rational points on a certain elliptic surface over P^1 of positive rank parameterize a family of genus-2 curves over Q whose Jacobians each have 128 rational torsion points. Also, we find the genus-3 curve 15625(X^4 + Y^4 + Z^4) - 96914(X^2 Y^2 + X^2 Z^2 + Y^2 Z^2) = 0, whose Jacobian has 864 rational torsion points. This paper has appeared in Forum Math. 12 (2000) 315-364.
We establish an equidistribution result for push-forwards of certain locally finite algebraic measures in the adelic extension of the space of lattices in the plane. As an application of our analysis we obtain new results regarding the asymptotic normality of the continued fraction expansions of most rationals with a high denominator as well as an estimate on the length of their continued fraction expansions. By similar methods we also establish a complementary result to Zaremba's conjecture. Namely, we show that given a bound M, for any large q, the number of rationals $p/q\in [0,1]$ for whic…
In this article, for a certain subset $\mathcal{X}$ of the extended set of rational numbers, we introduce the notion of {\it best $\mathcal{X}$-approximations} of a real number. The notion of best $\mathcal{X}$-approximation is analogous to that of best rational approximation. We explore these approximations with the help of $\mathcal{F}_{p^l}$-continued fractions, where $p$ is a prime and $l\in\mathbb{N}$, we show that the convergents of the $\mathcal{F}_{p^l}$-continued fraction expansion of a real number $x$ satisfying certain maximal conditions are exactly the best $\mathcal{F}_{p^l}$-appr…
Let $p$ and $q$ be distinct primes. Consider the Shimura curve $\mathcal{X}$ associated to the indefinite quaternion algebra of discriminant $pq$ over $\mathbb{Q}$. Let $J$ be the Jacobian variety of $\mathcal{X}$, which is an abelian variety over $\mathbb{Q}$. For an odd prime $\ell$, we provide sufficient conditions for the non-existence of rational points of order $\ell$ on $J$. As an application, we find some non-trivial subgroups of the kernel of an isogeny from the new quotient of $J_0(pq)$ to $J$.
Let $[K:\mathbb{Q}]=p$ be a prime number and let $E/K$ be an elliptic curve with $j(E) \in \mathbb{Q}$. We determine the all possibilities for $E(K)_{tors}$. We obtain these results by studying Galois representations of $E$ and of it's quadratic twists.
We introduce a notion of $q$-deformed rational numbers and $q$-deformed continued fractions. A $q$-deformed rational is encoded by a triangulation of a polygon and can be computed recursively. The recursive formula is analogous to the $q$-deformed Pascal identitiy for the Gaussian binomial coefficients, but the Pascal triangle is replaced by the Farey graph. The coefficients of the polynomials defining the $q$-rational count quiver subrepresentations of the maximal indecomposable representation of the graph dual to the triangulation. Several other properties, such as total positivity propertie…
In this paper we define "a continued fraction expansion of the exponential integral $E_{1}(x)$ at infinity", which is analogous to the regular continued fraction expansion of real numbers, and prove that this expansion gives the same continued fraction. Moreover, we give concrete representations of rational functions which are obtained by truncating the continued fraction.
Let $E/\mathbb{Q}$ be an elliptic curve and let $\mathbb{Q}(3^\infty)$ be the compositum of all cubic extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$. In this article we show that the torsion subgroup of $E(\mathbb{Q}(3^\infty))$ is finite and determine 20 possibilities for its structure, along with a complete description of the $\overline{\mathbb{Q}}$-isomorphism classes of elliptic curves that fall into each case. We provide rational parameterizations for each of the 16 torsion structures that occur for infinitely many $\overline{\mathbb{Q}}$-isomorphism classes of elliptic curves, and a complete list of $j$-inv…
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve defined over $\Q$, and let $G$ be the torsion group $E(K)_{tors}$ for some cubic field $K$ which does not occur over $\Q$. In this paper, we determine over which types of cubic number fields (cyclic cubic, non-Galois totally real cubic, complex cubic or pure cubic) $G$ can occur, and if so, whether it can occur infinitely often or not. Moreover, if it occurs, we provide elliptic curves $E/\Q$ together with cubic fields $K$ so that $G= E(K)_{tors}$.
Rational approximations to a square root $\sqrt{k}$ can be produced by iterating the transformation $f(x) = (dx+k)/(x+d)$ starting from $\infty$ for any positive integer $d$. We show that these approximations coincide infinitely often with continued fraction convergents if and only if $4d^2/(k-d^2)$ is an integer, in which case the continued fraction has a rich structure. It consists of the concatenation of the continued fractions of certain explicitly definable rational numbers, and it belongs to one of infinitely many families of continued fractions whose terms vary linearly in two parameter…
We study rational points and torsion points on Drinfeld modular curves defined over rational function fields. As a consequence we derive a conjecture of Schweizer describing completely the torsion of Drinfeld modules of rank two over $\Bbb F_2(T)$ implying Poonen's uniform boundedness conjecture in this particular case.
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, and let $\mathbb{Q}^{ab}$ be the maximal abelian extension of $\mathbb{Q}$. In this article we classify the groups that can arise as $E(\mathbb{Q}^{ab})_{\text{tors}}$ up to isomorphism. The method illustrates techniques for finding explicit models of modular curves of mixed level structure. Moreover we provide an explicit algorithm to compute $E(\mathbb{Q}^{ab})_{\text{tors}}$ for any elliptic curve $E/\mathbb{Q}$.
For regular continued fraction, if a real number $x$ and its rational approximation $p/q$ satisfying $|x-p/q|<1/q^2$, then, after deleting the last integer of the partial quotients of $p/q$, the sequence of the remaining partial quotients is a prefix of that of $x$. In this paper, we show that the situation is completely different if we consider the Hurwitz continued fraction expansions of a complex number and its rational approximations. More specifically, we consider the set $E(ψ)$ of complex numbers which are well approximated with the given bound $ψ$ and have quite different Hurwitz contin…
In this paper, we give an explicit formula as well as a practical algorithm for computing the Cassels-Tate pairing on $\text{Sel}^{2}(J) \times \text{Sel}^{2}(J)$ where $J$ is the Jacobian variety of a genus two curve under the assumption that all points in $J[2]$ are $K$-rational. We also give an explicit formula for the Obstruction map $\text{Ob}: H^1(G_K, J[2]) \rightarrow \text{Br}(K)$ under the same assumption. Finally, we include a worked example demonstrating we can indeed improve the rank bound given by a 2-descent via computing the Cassels-Tate pairing.
Recently there has been much interest in studying the torsion subgroups of elliptic curves base-extended to infinite extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$. In this paper, given a finite group $G$, we study what happens with the torsion of an elliptic curve $E$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ when changing base to the compositum of all number fields with Galois group $G$. We do this by studying a group theoretic condition called generalized $G$-type, which is a necessary condition for a number field with Galois group $H$ to be contained in that compositum. In general, group theory allows one to reduce the original prob…
In this article, we determine the structure of the $p$-primary subgroup of the cuspidal rational torsion subgroup of the Jacobian $J_1(p^n)$ of the modular curve $X_1(p^n)$ for a regular prime $p$.
Let $A$ be an elliptic curve over $\Q$ of square free conductor $N$. We prove that if $A$ has a rational torsion point of prime order $r$ such that $r$ does not divide $6N$, then $r$ divides the order of the cuspidal subgroup of $J_0(N)$.
In this paper, we explicitly classify the minimal discriminants of all elliptic curves $E/\mathbb{Q}$ with a non-trivial torsion subgroup. This is done by considering various parameterized families of elliptic curves with the property that they parameterize all elliptic curves $E/\mathbb{Q}$ with a non-trivial torsion point. We follow this by giving admissible change of variables, which give a global minimal model for $E$. We also provide necessary and sufficient conditions on the parameters of these families to determine the primes at which $E$ has additive reduction. In addition, we use thes…
Let $\ell$ be an odd prime and $d$ a positive integer. We determine when there exists a degree-$d$ number field $K$ and an elliptic curve $E/K$ with $j(E)\in\mathbb{Q}\setminus\{0,1728\}$ for which $E(K)_{\mathrm{tors}}$ contains a point of order $\ell$. We also determine when there exists such a pair $(K,E)$ for which the image of the associated mod-$\ell$ Galois representation is contained in a Cartan subgroup or its normalizer, conditionally on a conjecture of Sutherland. We do the same under the stronger assumption that $E$ is defined over $\mathbb{Q}$.
