Recall that an elliptic curve over a field k i.e a proper smooth connected curve of genus 1 eq

Mackenzie Rios

Mackenzie Rios

Answered question

2022-05-23

Recall that an elliptic curve over a field k i.e a proper smooth connected curve of genus 1 equipped with a distinguished k-rational point, I'll be really grateful for any help in understanding the following part of our course
Let ( E , 0 ) be an elliptic curve, using Riemann-Roch we construct an isomorphism into Proj k [ X , Y , Z ] / Y 2 Z + a 1 X Y Z + a 3 Y Z 2 X 3 a 2 X 2 Z a 4 X Z 2 a 6 Z 3 that can be written informally as P [ x ( P ) : y ( P ) : 1 ( P ) ], where x and y are rational functions such that v 0 ( x ) = 2 and v 0 ( y ) = 3.
Why does 0 map to the infinity point O = [ 0 : 1 : 0 ]? According to Hartshorne it is because both x and y have poles in 0 but I can't see why.

Answer & Explanation

aqueritztv

aqueritztv

Beginner2022-05-24Added 10 answers

Prelude
Throughout, I will refer to the distinguished point of E as θ instead of 0.
It is important to understand that your rational map p is simply not defined at θ, which is what you likely mean by saying that the morphism φ : E P 2 can "informally" be written as follows:
P [ x ( P ) : y ( P ) : 1 ]
I personally think of this scenario in two ways:
1. A continuous extension of this rational map to θ. This is a more geometric approach and my below explanation is not rigorous (due to the field being completely general here), but I think it is helpful.
2. For a rigorous approach, you have to use a different rational representation of φ around θ E and prove that it:
3. has the desired property and
4. is compatible with the one that you use everywhere else on the curve.
Geometric Intuition
Let us think of k as a continuous and friendly field, like C . Let's imagine E as being embedded into some projective space P ( V ). For a point p V, we use the notation [ p ] E if the projectivization of this point lies on the curve. With this notation, you have [ λ p ] = [ p ] for any λ k × . Let p V be such that θ = [ p ] is the distinguished point of E. Note that:
φ ( [ p ] ) = [ x ( [ p ] ) : y ( [ p ] ) : 1 ] = [ x ( [ λ p ] ) : y ( [ λ p ] ) : 1 ] = [ λ 2 x ( [ p ] ) : λ 3 y ( [ p ] ) : 1 ] = [ λ x ( [ p ] ) : y ( [ p ] ) : λ 3 ]
Because x and y have the aforementioned order at [ p ]. Now if you let λ approach zero in this expression on the right (which is constant!), the point approaches [ 0 : 1 : 0 ]. This can be turned into a formal proof if your field is actually continuous, but I will not spend a lot of time on it because we don't have or need this assumption here.
Rigorous Approach
To prove this properly, we need to understand the morphism globally, and provide a different rational representation around θ. The morphism φ corresponds to a morphism of (function) fields φ : k ( X , Y , Z ) k ( E ). The distinguished point θ is a maximal ideal in k [ E ] and we can write
1. φ ( X ) = x = a b
2. φ ( Y ) = y = c d
While ζ := φ ( Z ) is some element that is not in θ, we have a , b , c , d θ and as per the assumption:
1. v θ ( a ) v θ ( b ) = 2
2. v θ ( c ) v θ ( d ) = 3
Now let's define an a-priori different rational map f : k ( X , Y , Z ) k ( E ) as the composition of φ with the multiplication by λ 3 where λ is a function with v θ ( λ ) = 1. In other words:
1. f ( X ) := λ 3 a b
2. f ( Y ) := λ 3 c d
3. f ( Z ) := λ 3 ζ
Hence:
1. v θ ( f ( X ) ) = 3 + v θ ( t ) v θ ( u ) = 1 (first coordinate vanishes)
2. v θ ( f ( Y ) ) = 3 + v θ ( v ) v θ ( w ) = 0 (second coordinate doesn't)
3. v θ ( f ( Z ) ) = 3 (third coordinate vanishes)
With ψ := f , this implies ψ ( θ ) = [ 0 : 1 : 0 ]. Now we are left to verify that the rational functions ψ and φ are the same, which would prove that ψ is an extension of φ to θ which proves what we desire.
This is fairly straightforward: We only need to check that they agree on an open subset. For this subset, simply choose one where all of the functions ζ , λ , a , b , c , d are nonzero and you will get that the projective coordinates of ψ ( P ) and φ ( P ) differ by the nonzero scalar factor λ 3 ( P ), and so they are identical.

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