Impossible intersections in a Weierstrass family of elliptic curves

preprint2016arXivOpen access

Abstract

Consider the Weierstrass family of elliptic curves Eλ:y2=x3+λE_λ:y^2=x^3+λ parametrized by nonzero λ∈Q2‾λ\in\overline{\mathbb{Q}_2}, and let Pλ(x)=(x,x3+λ)∈EλP_λ(x)=(x,\sqrt{x^3+λ})\in E_λ. In this article, given α,β∈Q2‾α,β\in\overline{\mathbb{Q}_2} such that αβ∈Q\fracαβ\in\mathbb{Q}, we provide an explicit description for the set of parameters λλ such that Pλ(α)P_λ(α) and Pλ(β)P_λ(β) are simultaneously torsion for EλE_λ. In particular we prove that the aforementioned set is empty unless αβ∈{−2,−12}\fracαβ\in\{-2,-\frac{1}{2}\}. Furthermore, we show that this set is empty even when αβ∉Q\fracαβ\notin\mathbb{Q} provided that αα and ββ have distinct 2−2-adic absolute values and the ramification index e(Q2(αβ) ∣ Q2)e(\mathbb{Q}_2(\fracαβ)~\vert~\mathbb{Q}_2) is coprime with 66. We also improve upon a recent result of Stoll concerning the Legendre family of elliptic curves Eλ:y2=x(x−1)(x−λ)E_λ:y^2=x(x-1)(x-λ), which itself strengthened earlier work of Masser and Zannier by establishing that provided a,ba,b have distinct reduction modulo 22, the set {λ∈C∖{0,1} : (a,a(a−1)(a−λ)),(b,b(b−1)(b−λ))∈(Eλ)tors}\{λ\in\mathbb{C}\setminus\{0,1\}~:~(a,\sqrt{a(a-1)(a-λ)}),(b,\sqrt{b(b-1)(b-λ)})\in (E_λ)_{tors}\} is empty.

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