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...

In this chapter we will relate the topology of smooth projective varieties over the complex numbers with counting points over finite fields, via the Weil conjectures. If X is a variety defined over a finite field Fq, one can count its points over the various finite extensions of Fq; denote Nm = |X(Fmq )| (for instance, if X ⊂ AnFq is affine, given by equations f1, . . . , fk, then Nm = |{x ∈ Fm...

This is an introduction to classical descent theory, in the context of abelian varieties over number fields.

We develop a Chern-Weil theory for compact Lie group action whose generic stabilizers are finite in the framework of equivariant cohomology. As an application, we derive two localization formulas of Kalkman type for G = SU(2) or SO(3)-actions on compact manifolds with boundary. One of the formulas is then used to yield a very simple proof of a localization formula due to Jeffrey-Kirwan [10] in ...

Let A be a modular abelian variety of GL2-type over a totally real field F of class number one. Under some mild assumptions, we show that the Mordell-Weil rank of A grows polynomially over Hilbert class fields of CM extensions of F .

The starting point of this method is Falting’s article in which he proves the Mordell-Weil theorem. He remarked and Serre turned it into a working method, the fact that the equivalence of two λ-adic representations is something that can be basically determined on some finite extension of the base field (even though the representations might not factor through a finite quotient). Let Oλ be the r...

In this paper, we consider the average size of the 2-Selmer groups of a class of quadratic twists of each elliptic curve over Q with Q-torsion group Z2 × Z2. We prove the existence of a positive proportion of quadratic twists of such a curve, each of which has rank 0 Mordell-Weil group.

Given a surface of higher genus, we will look at the Weil-Petersson completion of the Teichmüller space of the surface, and will study the isometric action of the mapping class group on it. The main observation is that the geometric characteristics of the setting bear strong similarities to the ones in semi-simple Lie group actions on noncompact symmetric spaces.