Torsion subgroups of elliptic curves over quadratic fields and a conjecture of Granville

Abstract

We study the problem of determining the groups that can arise as the torsion subgroup of an elliptic curve over a fixed quadratic field, building on work of Kamienny-Najman, Krumm, and Trbović. By employing techniques to study rational points on curves developed by Bruin and Stoll, we determine the possible torsion subgroups of elliptic curves over quadratic fields $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d})$ for all squarefree $d$ with $|d|<800$, improving on the previously known range of $-5<d<26$. We use our computations to study the validity of a conjecture of Granville concerning how many twists of a given hyperelliptic curve admit a nontrivial rational point.

19 pages, 3 figures, comments welcome