We provide in this paper an upper bound for the number of rational points on a curve defined over a one variable function field over a finite field. The bound only depends on the curve and the field, but not on the Jacobian variety of the curve.
If the $ell$-adic cohomology of a projective smooth variety, defined over a local field $K$ with finite residue field $k$, is supported in codimension $ge 1$, then every model over the ring of integers of $K$ has a $k$-rational point. For $K$ a $p$-adic field, this is math/0405318, Theorem 1.1. If the model $sX$ is regular, one has a congruence $|sX(k)|equiv 1 $ modulo $|k|$ for the number of $k$-rational points 0704.1273, Theorem 1.1. The congruence is violated if one drops the regularity assumption.
We prove two theorems concerning isogenies of elliptic curves over function fields. The first one describes the variation of the height of the $j$-invariant in an isogeny class. The second one is an isogeny estimate, providing an explicit bound on the degree of a minimal isogeny between two isogenous elliptic curves. We also give several corollaries of these two results.
In 1922, Mordell conjectured the striking statement that for a polynomial equation $f(x,y)=0$, if the topology of the set of complex number solutions is complicated enough, then the set of rational number solutions is finite. This was proved by Faltings in 1983, and again by a different method by Vojta in 1991, but neither proof provided a way to provably find all the rational solutions, so the search for other proofs has continued. Recently, Lawrence and Venkatesh found a third proof, relying on variation in families of $p$-adic Galois representations; this is the subject of the present exposition.
Let $C$ be a smooth projective curve over $mathbb{F}_q$ with function field $K$, $E/K$ a nonconstant elliptic curve and $phi:mathcal{E}to C$ its minimal regular model. For each $Pin C$ such that $E$ has good reduction at $P$, i.e., the fiber $mathcal{E}_P=phi^{-1}(P)$ is smooth, the eigenvalues of the zeta-function of $mathcal{E}_P$ over the residue field $kappa_P$ of $P$ are of the form $q_P^{1/2}e^{itheta_P},q_{P}e^{-itheta_P}$, where $q_P=q^{deg(P)}$ and $0letheta_Plepi$. The goal of this note is to determine given an integer $Bge 1$, $alpha,betain[0,pi]$ the number of $Pin C$ where the reduction of $E$ is good and such that $deg(P)le B$ and $alphaletheta_Plebeta$.
We describe recent work connecting combinatorics and tropical/non-Archimedean geometry to Diophantine geometry, particularly the uniformity conjectures for rational points on curves and for torsion packets of curves. The method of Chabauty--Coleman lies at the heart of this connection, and we emphasize the clarification that tropical geometry affords throughout the theory of $p$-adic integration, especially to the comparison of analytic continuations of $p$-adic integrals and to the analysis of zeros of integrals on domains admitting monodromy.