SELF-POINTS ON ELLIPTIC CURVES OF PRIME CONDUCTOR

Abstract

Let E be an elliptic curve of conductor p. Given a cyclic subgroup C of order p in E[p], we construct a modular point PC on E, called self-point, as the image of (E,C) on X0(p) under the modular parametrization X0(p) → E. We prove that the point is of infinite order in the Mordell–Weil group of E over the field of definition of C. One can deduce a lower bound on the growth of the rank of the Mordell–Weil group in its PGL 2(ℤp)-tower inside ℚ(E[p∞]).