Serre's uniformity conjecture over the rationals
Serre's uniformity conjecture over the rationals
Inferred from the community field; finer classification has not been reviewed.
Problem statement
serre_uniformity
Serre's uniformity question over [Ser72, Lem17]: is there a bound such that every non-CM elliptic curve over has surjective mod- Galois representation for every prime ?
serre_uniformity.variants.bound_37
Serre's uniformity conjecture over , explicit form: the bound works, i.e. every non-CM elliptic curve over has surjective mod- Galois representation for every prime . From the introduction of [Lem17]: "This conjecture remains open today, but, over the last forty years, there has been a lot of progress towards a proof for — it is believed that, in this case, ."
Lean 4
Formal statement
Lean 4/-
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-/
import FormalConjecturesUtil
/-!
# Serre's uniformity conjecture over the rationals
Is there a bound $C$, independent of the non-CM elliptic curve $E/\mathbb{Q}$, such that
the Galois action on $E[p]$ is surjective onto $\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{F}_p)$ for every
prime $p > C$? This is the $\mathbb{Q}$ case of Serre's question [Ser72], recalled in
the introduction of [Lem17].
We express surjectivity without choosing a basis: every additive automorphism of $E[p]$
must be induced by an element of $G_{\mathbb{Q}}$. For prime $p$, these automorphisms are
exactly the $\mathbb{F}_p$-linear automorphisms. The non-CM condition uses the classification
of rational CM $j$-invariants.
*References:*
- [Ser72] J.-P. Serre, *Propriétés galoisiennes des points d'ordre fini des courbes
elliptiques*. Inventiones Mathematicae 15 (1972), 259–331.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01405086
- [Lem17] P. Lemos, *Serre's uniformity conjecture for elliptic curves with rational
cyclic isogenies*, introduction. https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.01985
-/
namespace SerreUniformity
/--
The thirteen rational CM $j$-invariants.
-/
def cmJInvariants : Finset ℚ :=
{0, 1728, -3375, 8000, -32768, 54000, 287496, -884736,
-12288000, 16581375, -884736000, -147197952000, -262537412640768000}
open scoped Classical in
/--
Every additive automorphism of $E[p]$ is induced by a Galois automorphism.
For elliptic $E$ and prime $p$, this means that the mod-$p$ representation is surjective.
-/
def HasFullTorsionAction (E : WeierstrassCurve ℚ) (p : ℕ) : Prop :=
let T := AddSubgroup.torsionBy (E.baseChange (AlgebraicClosure ℚ)).toAffine.Point (p : ℤ)
∀ f : T ≃+ T, ∃ σ : AlgebraicClosure ℚ ≃ₐ[ℚ] AlgebraicClosure ℚ,
∀ P : T, WeierstrassCurve.Affine.Point.map (W' := E) σ.toAlgHom P.val = (f P).val
/--
**Serre's uniformity question over $\mathbb{Q}$** [Ser72, Lem17]: is there a bound
$C$ such that every non-CM elliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}$ has surjective mod-$p$
Galois representation for every prime $p > C$?
-/
@[category research open, AMS 11 14]
theorem serre_uniformity :
answer(sorry) ↔
∃ C : ℕ, ∀ (E : WeierstrassCurve ℚ) [E.IsElliptic], E.j ∉ cmJInvariants →
∀ p : ℕ, p.Prime → C < p → HasFullTorsionAction E p := by
sorry
/--
**Serre's uniformity conjecture over $\mathbb{Q}$, explicit form**: the bound $C = 37$
works, i.e. every non-CM elliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}$ has surjective mod-$p$ Galois
representation for every prime $p > 37$. From the introduction of [Lem17]: "This conjecture
remains open today, but, over the last forty years, there has been a lot of progress towards
a proof for $K = \mathbb{Q}$ — it is believed that, in this case, $p_K = 37$."
-/
@[category research open, AMS 11 14]
theorem serre_uniformity.variants.bound_37 :
answer(sorry) ↔
∀ (E : WeierstrassCurve ℚ) [E.IsElliptic], E.j ∉ cmJInvariants →
∀ p : ℕ, p.Prime → 37 < p → HasFullTorsionAction E p := by
sorry
end SerreUniformity
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Background
Source snapshot inspected on 10 September 2026. Subsequent research status and the accuracy of source formalizations have not been independently certified.
Fixed commit b82b08faa9006484021c12005ab41287fb2ffb69. This file contains 2 source-labeled research-open declarations. Other declarations in the attached file can be definitions, solved results or tests. The file is preserved as source material; it has not been compiled or proved by this import.
Copyright The Formal Conjectures Authors. Code: Apache-2.0; other original material: CC BY 4.0. Third-party sources retain their own licenses. Original source files and notices preserved.
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