Rankin-Selberg L-functions in cyclotomic towers, II

Following the prequel work \cite{VO3}, we prove a generalization of "Mazur's conjecture" for $L$-functions of elliptic curves in abelian extensions of imaginary quadratic fields, including the assertion that the Mordell-Weil rank of an elliptic curve in the ${\bf{Z}}_p^2$-extension is finitely generated modulo Heegner points. The novelty of the approach here is to use the existence of a suitable $p$-adic $L$-function to reduce the problem to a minimal nonvanishing criterion, which should be applicable to a broader class of problems than considered here.