Let N be a prime and let A be a quotient of J0(N) over Q associated to a newform such that the special L-value of A (at s = 1) is non-zero. Suppose that the algebraic part of the special L-value of A is divisible by an odd prime q such that q does not divide the numerator of N−1 12 . Then the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture predicts that the q-adic valuations of the algebraic part of the s...

Given an L-function, one of the most important questions concerns its vanishing at the central point; for example, the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture states that the order of vanishing there of an elliptic curve L-function equals the rank of the Mordell-Weil group. The Katz and Sarnak Density Conjecture states that this and other behavior is well-modeled by random matrix ensembles. This c...

The Weil conjectures constitute one of the central landmarks of 20th century algebraic geometry: not only was their proof a dramatic triumph, but they served as a driving force behind a striking number of fundamental advances in the field. The conjectures treat a very elementary problem: how to count the number of solutions to systems of polynomial equations over finite fields. While one might ...

The canonical height ĥ on an abelian variety A defined over a global field k is an object of fundamental importance in the study of the arithmetic of A. For many applications it is required to compute ĥ(P ) for a given point P ∈ A(k). For instance, given generators of a subgroup of the Mordell-Weil group A(k) of finite index, this is necessary for most known approaches to the computation of gen...

We prove that almost any pair of real numbers α, β, satisfies the following inhomogeneous uniform version of Littlewood’s conjecture: For any real γ, δ, lim inf |n|→∞ n〈nα− γ〉〈nβ − δ〉 = 0, (0.1) where 〈·〉 denotes the distance from the nearest integer. The existence of even a single pair that satisfies (0.1), solves an open problem of Cassels [Ca] from the 50’s. We then prove that if 1, α, β spa...

We prove that almost any pair of real numbers α, β, satisfies the following inhomogeneous uniform version of Littlewood’s conjecture: ∀γ, δ ∈ R, lim inf |n|→∞ |n| 〈nα− γ〉〈nβ − δ〉 = 0, (0.1) where 〈·〉 denotes the distance from the nearest integer. The existence of even a single pair that satisfies (0.1), solves a problem of Cassels [Ca] from the 50’s. We then prove that if 1, α, β span a totally...

The Manin constant of an elliptic curve is an invariant that arises in connection with the conjecture of Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer. One conjectures that this constant is 1; it is known to be an integer. After surveying what is known about the Manin constant, we establish a new sufficient condition that ensures that the Manin constant is an odd integer. Next, we generalize the notion of the Mani...

We establish a congruence formula between p-adic logarithms of Heegner points for two elliptic curves with the same mod p Galois representation. As a first application, we use the congruence formula when p = 2 to explicitly construct many quadratic twists of analytic rank zero (resp. one) for a wide class of elliptic curves E. We show that the number of twists of E up to twisting discriminant X...

Let F be a global function field of characteristic p > 0, let F /F be a Galois extension with Gal(F /F) ≃ Z N p and let E/F be a non-isotrivial elliptic curve. We study the behaviour of Selmer groups Sel E (L) l (l any prime) as L varies through the subextensions of F via an appropriate version of Mazur's Control Theorem. In the case l = p we let F = F d where F d /F is a Z d p-extension. With ...