Uniformity in Mordell-Lang for curves

Abstract

Consider a smooth, geometrically irreducible, projective curve of genus $g\ge 2$ defined over a number field of degree $d\ge 1$. It has at most finitely many rational points by the Mordell Conjecture, a theorem of Faltings. We show that the number of rational points is bounded only in terms of $g$, $d$, and the Mordell-Weil rank of the curve's Jacobian, thereby answering in the affirmative a question of Mazur. In addition we obtain uniform bounded, in $g$ and $d$, for the number of geometric torsion points of the Jacobian which lie in the image of an Abel-Jacobi map. Both estimates generalize our previous work for $1$-parameter families. Our proof uses Vojta's approach to the Mordell Conjecture, and the key new ingredient is the generalization of a height inequality due to the second- and third-named authors.

Appendix B revised. Accepted to Annals of Mathematics. Comments are welcome