Heights and regulators of number fields and elliptic curves

Abstract

We compare general inequalities between invariants of number fields and invariants of elliptic curves over number fields. On the number field side, we remark that there is only a finite number of non-CM number fields with bounded regulator. On the elliptic curve side, assuming the height conjecture of Lang and Silverman, we obtain a Northcott property for the regulator on the set of elliptic curves with dense rational points over a number field. This amounts to say that the arithmetic of CM fields is similar, with respect to the invariants considered here, to the arithmetic of elliptic curves over a number field having a non Zariski dense Mordell-Weil group, i.e. with rank zero.