Studying the growth of Mordell-Weil

  • Barry Mazur

  • Karl Rubin

Abstract

We study the growth of the Mordell-Weil groups E(Kn)E(K_n) of an elliptic curve EE as KnK_n runs through the intermediate fields of a Zp\Bbb Z_p-extension. We describe those Zp\Bbb Z_p-extensions K/KK_\infty/K where we expect the ranks to grow to infinity. In the cases where we know or expect the rank to grow, we discuss where we expect to find the submodule of universal norms.