English

On the Hasse principle for divisibility in elliptic curves

Number Theory 2025-11-05 v1

Abstract

Let pp be a prime number and nn a positive integer. Let EE be an elliptic curve defined over a number field kk. It is known that the local-global divisibility by pp holds in E/kE/k, but for powers of pnp^n counterexamples may appear. The validity or the failing of the Hasse principle depends on the elliptic curve EE and the field kk and, consequently, on the group Gal(k(E[pn])/k)\mathrm{Gal}(k(E[p^n])/k). For which kind of these groups does the principle hold? For which of them can we find a counterexample? The answer to these questions was known for n=1,2n=1,2, but for n3n\geq 3 they were still open. We show some conditions on the generators of Gal(k(E[pn])/k)\mathrm{Gal}(k(E[p^n])/k) implying an affirmative answer to the local-global divisibility by pnp^n in EE over kk, for every n2n\geq 2. We also prove that these conditions are necessary by producing counterexamples in the case when they do not hold. These last results generalize to every power pnp^n, a result obtained by Ranieri for n=2n=2.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.02078,
  title  = {On the Hasse principle for divisibility in elliptic curves},
  author = {Jessica Alessandrì and Laura Paladino},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.02078},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

19 pages