Criteria for p-ordinarity of families of elliptic curves over infinitely many number fields

Abstract

Let Ki be a number field for all i ∈ ℤ>0 and let ℰ be a family of elliptic curves containing infinitely many members defined over Ki for all i. Fix a rational prime p. We give sufficient conditions for the existence of an integer i0 such that, for all i > i0 and all elliptic curve E ∈ ℰ having good reduction at all 𝔭 | p in Ki, we have that E has good ordinary reduction at all primes 𝔭 | p. We illustrate our criteria by applying it to certain Frey curves in [Recipes to Fermat-type equations of the form xr + yr = Czp, to appear in Math. Z.; http://arXiv.org/abs/1203.3371 ] attached to Fermat-type equations of signature (r, r, p).