English

Elliptic curves with missing Frobenius traces

Number Theory 2021-08-20 v1

Abstract

Let EE be an elliptic curve defined over Q\mathbb{Q}. In 1976, Lang and Trotter conjectured an asymptotic formula for the number πE,r(X)\pi_{E,r}(X) of primes pXp \leq X of good reduction for which the Frobenius trace at pp associated to EE is equal to a given fixed integer rr. We investigate elliptic curves EE over Q\mathbb{Q} that have a missing Frobenius trace, i.e. for which the counting function πE,r(X)\pi_{E,r}(X) remains bounded as XX \rightarrow \infty, for some rZr \in \mathbb{Z}. In particular, we classify all elliptic curves EE over Q(t)\mathbb{Q}(t) that have a missing Frobenius trace.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2108.08727,
  title  = {Elliptic curves with missing Frobenius traces},
  author = {Nathan Jones and Kevin Vissuet},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.08727},
  year   = {2021}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T05:15:21.754Z