11 - Motivating Motives previous next

Hasse's Theorem on Elliptic Curves (1933)

Given a cubic equation
with integer coefficients in two variables
that defines an elliptic curve,
the number of solutions in the field with pn elements is $$ p^n - \alpha^n - \overline{\alpha}^{\, n} $$ where \(\alpha \in \mathbb{C}\) has \(|\alpha| = \sqrt{p}\).