English

Distribution of the traces of Frobenius on elliptic curves over function fields

Number Theory 2007-05-23 v3 Algebraic Geometry

Abstract

Let C be a smooth irreducible projective curve defined over a finite field Fq\mathbb{F}_{q} of q elements of characteristic p>3 and K=Fq(C)K=\mathbb{F}_{q}(C) its function field and ϕE:EC\phi_{\mathcal{E}}:\mathcal{E}\to C the minimal regular model of E/K\mathbf{E}/K. For each PCP\in C denote EP=ϕE1(P)\mathcal{E}_P=\phi^{-1}_{\mathcal{E}}(P). The elliptic curve E/KE/K has good reduction at PCP\in C if and only if EP\mathcal{E}_P is an elliptic curve defined over the residue field κP\kappa_P of PP. This field is a finite extension of Fq\mathbb{F}_q of degree deg(P)\deg(P). Let t(\mathcal{E}_P)=q^{\deg(P)}+1-#\mathcal{E}_P(\kappa_P) be the trace of Frobenius at P. By Hasse-Weil's theorem (cf. [10, Chapter V, Theorem 2.4]), t(EP)t(\mathcal{E}_P) is the sum of the inverses of the zeros of the zeta function of EP\mathcal{E}_P. In particular, t(EP)2qdeg(P)|t(\mathcal{E}_P)|\le 2q^{\deg(P)}. Let C0CC_0\subset C be the set of points of C at which E/KE/K has good reduction and C0(Fqk)C_0(\mathbb{F}_{q^k}) the subset of Fqk\mathbb{F}_{q^k}-rational points of C0C_0. We discuss the following question. Let k1k\ge 1 and t be integers and suppose t2qk/2|t|\le 2q^{k/2}. Let \pi(k,t)=#\{P\in C_0(\mathbb{F}_{q^k}) | t(\mathcal{E}_P)=t\}. How big is π(k,t)\pi(k,t)?

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0111105,
  title  = {Distribution of the traces of Frobenius on elliptic curves over function fields},
  author = {Amilcar Pacheco},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0111105},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

11 pages, replaced version, minor correction on the degree of the j-map