[Math] Isogeny classes and elliptic curves over finite fields

elliptic-curvesnt.number-theory

Fix a conductor and a prime $p$. Then

1) Do the elliptic curves in the same isogeny class after reduction modulo $p$ have the same number of points over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_{p} ?$

2) Do the elliptic curves belonging to two different isogeny classes corresponding to the fixed conductor, after reduction modulo $p$ have the same number of points over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_{p} ?$

Best Answer

3) Yes. They have the same characteristic polynomial of Frobenius acting on the Tate module, hence the same number of points.

4) Depends on how you want to reduce mod p. Certainly if they are isogenous with the same conductor, then they will have the same reduction type: split / non-split multiplicative reduction or additive reduction, corresponding to p-1, p+1, or p points. (Or 1 more, counting the singular point.)

However another reasonable way to count points over the reduction includes the number of components in the component group of the Neron model. This is not preserved by isogeny.