Based on ideas from recent joint work with Bjorn Poonen, we describe an algorithm that can in certain cases determine the set of rational points on a curve C, given only the p-Selmer group S of its Jacobian (or some other abelian variety C maps to) and the image of the p-Selmer set of C in S. The method is more likely to succeed when the genus is large, which is when it is usually rather diffic...

Kolyvagin used Heegner points to associate a system of cohomology classes to an elliptic curve over Q and conjectured that the system contains a non-trivial class. His conjecture has profound implications on the structure of Selmer groups. We provide new computational and theoretical evidence for Kolyvagin’s conjecture. More precisely, we explicitly compute Heegner points over ring class fields...

It is shown that the obvious method of descending from an element of the 2-Selmer group of an elliptic curve, E, will indeed give elements of order 1, 2 or 4 in the Weil-Chatelet group of E. Explicit algorithms for such a method are given.

Let X be a proper flat scheme over the ring of integers of a global field. We show that the Tate conjecture and the finiteness of the Chow group of vertical cycles on self-products of X implies the vanishing of the dual Selmer group of certain twists of tensor powers of representations occurring in the étale cohomology of X.

Let p be a prime number and M a quadratic number field, M , Q( √ p) if p ≡ 1 mod 4. We will prove that for any positive integer d there exists a Galois extension F/Q with Galois group D2p and an elliptic curve E/Q such that F contains M and the p-Selmer group of E/F has size at least pd.

In this paper, we consider the average size of the 2-Selmer groups of a class of quadratic twists of each elliptic curve over Q with Q-torsion group Z2 × Z2. We prove the existence of a positive proportion of quadratic twists of such a curve, each of which has rank 0 Mordell-Weil group.

For certain algebraic Hecke characters χ of an imaginary quadratic field F we define an Eisenstein ideal in a p-adic Hecke algebra acting on cuspidal automorphic forms of GL2/F . By finding congruences between Eisenstein cohomology classes (in the sense of G. Harder) and cuspidal classes we prove a lower bound for the index of the Eisenstein ideal in the Hecke algebra in terms of the special L-...

In this paper, we make a study of the Iwasawa theory of an elliptic curve at a supersingular prime p along an arbitrary Zp-extension of a number field K in the case when p splits completely in K. Generalizing work of Kobayashi [8] and Perrin-Riou [16], we define restricted Selmer groups and λ ± , µ ±-invariants; we then derive asymptotic formulas describing the growth of the Selmer group in ter...

Since their introduction by Kolyvagin in [Ko], Euler systems have been used in several important applications in arithmetic algebraic geometry. For a p-adic Galois module T , Kolyvagin’s machinery is designed to provide an upper bound for the size of a Selmer group associated to the Cartier dual of T . Kolyvagin’s method proceeds in three steps. The first step is to establish an Euler system as...

In this article we study the 2-Selmer groups of number fields F as well as some related groups, and present connections to the quadratic reciprocity law in F . Let F be a number field; elements in F× that are ideal squares were called singular numbers in the classical literature. They were studied in connection with explicit reciprocity laws, the construction of class fields, or the solution of...