Let $E$ be an elliptic curve defined by $E:y^2=x^3-x$. I want to figure out all points $P∈E(\bar{\Bbb Q })$ which satisfies $[2]P∈E({\Bbb Q })$.

arithmetic-geometryelliptic-curvesfield-theory

Let $E$ be an elliptic curve defined by $E:y^2=x^3-x$.
I want to figure out all points $P∈E(\bar{\Bbb Q })$ which satisfies $[2]P∈E({\Bbb Q })$.In other word, I would like to explicitly write down the elements of
a set

$K'=${${P∈E(\bar{\Bbb Q })|[2]P∈E({\Bbb Q })}$}$=[2]^{-1}E( \Bbb Q)$.
Is this hand manageable?

Motivation of this question:$K'/K$ is finite and it's Galois group is known to be abelian exponent $2$. This kind of extension is used in the proof of weak model Weil theorem, and I want to check with my hand concrete examples of such ($[m]^{-1}E(K)$) extensions.

Thank you in advance.

Best Answer

For this particular elliptic curve, the Mordell-Weil rank is equal to $0$. This is equivalent to the fact that $1$ is not a congruent number, which can be proved with elementary methods.

Thus we can completely determine: $E(\Bbb Q) = \{(-1, 0), (0, 0), (1, 0), \infty\} = E[2]$.

Thus the set of all points $P$ with $[2]P \in E(\Bbb Q)$ is simply $E[4]$, which has $16$ points and can be totally determined by solving the equation $[4]P = 0$.


We can compute $E[4]$ by solving equations $[2]P = Q$ for each $Q \in E[2]$. For $Q = \infty$ we get just $E[2]$ as four solutions.

The doubling formula for this curve is $x([2]P) = \frac{x^4 + 2x^2 + 1}{4(x^3 - x)}$, where $x = x(P)$.

Thus for example the $x(P)$ values for the four solutions to $[2]P = (-1, 0)$ are the roots of the polynomial $(x^4 + 2x^2 + 1) + 4(x^3 - x) = 0$, which are $-1 \pm \sqrt 2$, each with multiplicity $2$ since there are two $y(P)$ values for each $x(P)$ value.

Calculations for the other two are similar.

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