An Algebraic Version of a Theorem of Kurihara

Let E/Q be an elliptic curve and let p be an odd supersingular prime for E. In this article, we study the simplest case of Iwasawa theory for elliptic curves, namely when E(Q) is finite, X(E/Q) has no p-torsion and the Tamagawa factors for E are all prime to p. Under these hypotheses, we prove that E(Qn) is finite and make precise statements about the size and structure of the p-power part of X(E/Qn). Here Qn is the n-th step in the cyclotomic Zp-extension of Q.