Galois theory and torsion points on curves

Matthew Baker, Kenneth A. Ribet

Published 2002-12-10Version 1

In this paper, we survey some Galois-theoretic techniques for studying torsion points on curves. In particular, we give new proofs of some results of A. Tamagawa and the present authors for studying torsion points on curves with "ordinary good" or "ordinary semistable" reduction at a given prime. We also give new proofs of: (1) The Manin-Mumford conjecture: There are only finitely many torsion points lying on a curve of genus at least 2 embedded in its Jacobian by an Albanese map; and (2) The Coleman-Kaskel-Ribet conjecture: If p is a prime number which is at least 23, then the only torsion points lying on the curve X_0(p), embedded in its Jacobian by a cuspidal embedding, are the cusps (together with the hyperelliptic branch points when X_0(p) is hyperelliptic and p is not 37). In an effort to make the exposition as useful as possible, we provide references for all of the facts about modular curves which are needed for our discussion.