Model Theory, Algebra, and Geometry
MSRI Publications
Volume 39, 2000

Abelian Varieties and the Mordell–Lang
Conjecture
BARRY MAZUR

Abstract. This is an introductory exposition to background material useful to appreciate various formulations of the Mordell–Lang conjecture (nowestablished by recent spectacular work due to Vojta, Faltings, Hrushovski,
Buium, Voloch, and others). It gives an exposition of some of the elementary and standard constructions of algebro-geometric models (rather thanmodel-theoretic ones) with applications (for example, via the method of
Chabauty) relevant to Mordell–Lang. The article turns technical at one
point (the step in the proof of the Mordell–Lang Conjecture in characteristic zero which passes from number fields to general fields). Two different
procedures are sketched for doing this, with more details given than are
readily found in the literature. There is also some discussion of issues ofeffectivity.

Contents
Introduction
201
1. Complex Tori and Abelian Varieties202
2. Configurations and Configuration-Closure
203
3. “Absolute” Mordell–Lang in Characteristic Zero: Theorems of Faltings
and Vojta
204
4. “Relative” Mordell–Lang in All Characteristics: Theorems of Manin,
Grauert, Buium, Voloch, Hrushovski, etc.
208
5. Models in the Sense of Algebraic Geometry
209
6. Proof of Absolute Mordell–Lang in Characteristic 0 for Curves of Rank 1 213
7. The Reduction of the Proof of Mordell–Lang to Global Fields
214
8. Number-Effectivity Revisited221
References
224

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The organizers of this MSRI workshop in Arithmetic and Model Theory gaveme the agreeable task of lecturing on introductory background in the theoryof abelian varieties, and especially those parts of the theory relevant to theMordell–Lang Conjecture, which is the theme of some of the recent spectacular work (by Vojta, Faltings, Hrushovski, Buium, Voloch, and others). To
keep this talk as “introductory” and as focussed as possible I will concentrate
only on the version of the Mordell–Lang Conjecture that deals with abelian,rather than semi-abelian, varieties, and I will not discuss its elaborations that
include “Manin–Mumford type” questions regarding torsion points. For this,see [Raynaud 1983b; 1983c; Coleman 1985b; Hindry 1988; McQuillan 1995], andthe extensive bibliographies in these articles. For a general introduction to themodel theory approach to Mordell–Lang, see [Bouscaren 1998], and particularly[Hindry 1998] therein. I have tried to make my expository article overlap as little as possible with Hindry’s, given their nearly identical titles, and their similar
missions.
We can look forward to further deep connections between model theory andarithmetic problems. For example, there is the model theory of difference fields
which already has given rise to explicit bounds in certain arithmetic questions;see [Chatzidakis and Hrushovski 1999] and the bibliography there. Also there
are important applications of model theory to aspects of the ABC Conjecture, inthe work of Buium and that of Scanlon [1997a], which opens up a very promisingavenue of research.

The “fundamentals” of the theory of abelian varieties are collected in Section 1. The main theorems are stated and discussed in Sections 2, 3, and 4.
Motivated by the title of this conference, I also recorded a few of the much moremodest construction of models, sometimes done explicitly, sometimes implicitly,in standard algebraic geometric arguments. These well known constructions arereviewed in Section 5. For fun, in Section 6 we put the “p-adic model” to work:
we make use of the beautiful classical idea of Chabauty [1941] to give a proof ofa (small) piece of Mordell–Lang. One can think of the strategy of Chabauty’s
method as being, first, to extend the groundfield to a rather large field (i.e.,
the p-adics) over which differential equations work well (i.e., giving us the Lietheory for p-adic analytic groups), and then reaping the benefits of being able
to solve differential equations. Of course, I am saying it this way in order toforce a kinship (albeit a distant one) between the Chabauty approach and theformidable methods (as in [Hrushovski 1996; Hrushovski and Zilber 1993; 1996])
that I am learning about in this conference, and therefore to justify including
it in this article. Section 7 discusses the step in the proof of the Mordell–Lang
Conjecture in characteristic 0 which passes from number fields to general fields;
we give more details about this step than is found in the literature. Finally,
Section 8 is devoted to some comments about effectivity.

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Acknowledgements. I received signficant help from A. Buium, M. McQuillan,
M. Nakamaye, A. Pillay, P. Vojta, and C. Wood in preparing this article; I’mgrateful to them for the discussions we had, and I’m grateful that this article
gave me the opportunity to have such enjoyable discussions with them.

Introduction
The central result in the constellation of theorems to be discussed in thisarticle is the classical 1922 conjecture of Mordell, proved some sixty years laterby Faltings [1983] (which asserts that a curve of genus greater than 1 definedover a number field has only a finite number of points rational over that number
field). As an example of an application of this theorem, choose your favorite
polynomial g(x) with rational coefficients, no multiple roots, and of degree ≥ 5,for exampleg(x) = x(x − 1)(x − 2)(x − 3)(x − 4),and let K be any number field (that is, any field of finite degree over Q). Then
Faltings’ Theorem implies:
Corollary. Let g(x) be a polynomial in K[x] with no multiple roots, and ofdegree ≥ 5. Then there are only finitely many elements α ∈ K for which g(α) isa square in K.
We can use this corollary to illustrate some of the “degrees of effectivity” thatare of interest in this problem, and in similar problems. We distinguish threegrades:1. Number-effectivity. Is there a “directly computable” function of the coefficients of g(x) and of the number field K which provides an upper bound forthe number of such elements α ∈ K (i.e., for the number of α’s such that g(α)
is a square in K)?
2. Size-effectivity. Is there a “directly computable” function of the coefficientsof g(x) and of the number field K which provides an upper bound for theheights of elements α ∈ K for which g(α) is a square in K?
3. Uniform number-effectivity. Is there a “directly computable” function of
the degree of g(x) and of the number field K which provides an upper boundfor the number of elements α ∈ K for which g(α) is a square in K?
There is at least one somewhat ambiguous term in all of the questions raised
above; namely, what does one accept as “directly computable”? But by any reasonable standard of “direct computability”, the answer to Question 1 regarding
number-effectivity is yes: in fact the proof of Faltings’ Theorem readily provides
a quite large, but effective, upper bound for the number of K-valued points on
a curve of genus greater than 1 defined over K, in terms of K and the curve.
Question 2 is open, and is the focus of a good deal of activity. Question 3 isalso open (see [Caporaso et al. 1997] for the connection between Question 3 and202

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certain conjectures of Lang). For further discussion of these issues, see Section
8 below.
Our main interest in the present article will be higher-dimensional analogues ofFaltings’ theorem, these analogues being expressed in terms of abelian varieties.

1. Complex Tori and Abelian Varieties
An excellent reference for the basics of this theory is [Mumford 1974]. Let
V be a finite dimensional complex vector space, and call its dimension d. LetΛ ⊂ V be a discrete additive subgroup of rank 2d. It follows that the natural
homomorphism of real vector spaces Λ⊗Z R → V is an isomorphism, and that 2d
is the maximal rank that a discrete additive subgroup of V can have. We referto Λ as a lattice in V , and to the quotient (commutative, compact) complex Liegroup T := V /Λ as a complex torus. Given T we can reconstruct V up to unique
isomorphism as the tangent space at the origin (i.e., the “Lie algebra”) of thecomplex Lie group T . The elementary construction of passing to the quotient(V, Λ) 7→ T = V /Λis functorial from the category of lattices in finite-dimensional complex vector
spaces to the category of complex tori. If T = V /Λ we have the following diagramof endomorphism rings:
Endcx tori (T ) = Endab gp (Λ) ∩ Endcx v. sp. (V )⊂ Endreal v. sp. (Λ ⊗Z R) = Endreal v. sp. (V ).
Since Endcx tori (T ) ⊂ Endab gp (Λ) it follows that the underlying additive
group of Endcx tori (T ) is a finitely generated and free abelian group.
If the complex manifold T ,→ P N admits a complex analytic imbedding into
projective N -space, then by Chow’s Theorem, T is the locus of zeroes of homogeneous polynomial equations in P N and therefore carries the structure of
projective algebraic variety; its group law is algebraic. By a projective variety inthis article, we do not impose the condition that it be irreducible; we mean what
is sometimes referred to as algebraic set, i.e., cut out by a system of homogenous forms as in [Hartshorne 1977, Chapter 1, Section 2]. If our varieties are
irreducible, we will signal this explicitly by the phrase irreducible variety. By an
abelian variety over a field F we mean a group object in the category of geometrically irreducible, proper (i.e., “complete”) , algebraic varieties (over F ). Thus,
a complex analytic imbedding of a complex torus T in projective space endows
T with the structure of abelian variety over the field C. Any abelian variety overF is a projective variety, i.e., is isomorphic over F to a subvariety of projective
space. Any abelian variety over C, when viewed with its underlying complex
Lie group structure is a complex torus. The theory of Weierstrass guarantees
that any complex 1-dimensional torus admits a complex analytic imbedding (asa plane cubic) in P 2 , and therefore admits the structure of an elliptic curve,

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i.e., the structure of an abelian variety (of dimension 1) over C. When d > 1
the “Riemann period relations” impose definite conditions on lattices Λ ⊂ V inorder that T = V /Λ be imbeddable in projective space, or equivalently, that T
have the structure of abelian variety over C.
When T is an abelian variety, its complex analytic endomorphisms are all“algebraic”, in the sense that they are endomorphisms of the abelian variety
T , defined over C. If A is an abelian variety over any field K, we have thePoincaré complete reducibility theorem [Mumford 1974, Section 19, Theorem 1],
which says that given any abelian subvariety Y ⊂ A there is a “complementary”
abelian subvariety Z ⊂ A (in the sense that Y ∩ Z is a finite group and Y andZ taken together span A). In standard terminology, we have that the natural
homomorphism Y ⊕ Z → A is an isogeny in the sense that it is a surjective
homomorphism with finite kernel. It follows directly that, “up to isogeny” ,any abelian variety over a field F is a direct sum of (a finite number of) simple
abelian varieties over F . (An abelian variety X over F is called simple (overF ) if any abelian subvariety of X defined over F is either {0} or X.) It follows
easily [Mumford 1974, Corollaries 1 and 2 of Section 19] that the algebra ofendomorphisms of the abelian variety A, after being tensored with Q,
Endab var /F (A) ⊗Z Q,
is a (finite-dimensional) semi-simple algebra over Q.

2. Configurations and Configuration-Closure
Let F be a field and let V be a finite dimensional vector space over F . By aconfiguration in V we will mean a subset W ⊂ V that is the (possibly empty)
finite union of translates of vector subspaces (over the same field F ) of V . That
is, W is a configuration in V if
W =

n
[

(vj + Vj )j=1

for elements vj ∈ V and vector subspaces Vj ⊂ V . The collection of configurations in a finite dimensional vector space V is closed under finite union andarbitrary intersection — that is, it forms the collection of closed sets for a topology of V ; moreover, this collection satisfies the “noetherian” (descending chain)condition. That is, given any decreasing sequence · · · ⊂ Wj+1 ⊂ Wj ⊂ · · ·of configurations in V , indexed by natural numbers j, the sequence eventuallystabilizes. This allows us to define the notion of configuration-closure:
Definition. Given an arbitrary subset S ⊂ V , the configuration-closure,
Conf V (S), of S in V is the smallest configuration in V containing S. Equivalently, Conf V (S) is the intersection of all configurations containing S.

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A linear transformation of vector spaces, φ : V → W , brings configurations in thedomain V to configurations in W , and the full inverse image of a configurationin W (under φ) is a configuration in V . If S ⊂ V is a subset,
φ Conf V (S) = Conf W (φS).
We can carry the notion of “configuration” and “configuration-closure” toabelian varieties, or to complex tori. We do this explicitly for abelian varieties
over an algebraically closed field K. Recall that if A is an abelian variety overK, and S ⊂ A(K) is a set of K-rational points of A, we can consider, theZariski closure of S in A (which we denote ZarA (S) ⊂ A) which is defined tobe the smallest closed subvariety of A whose set of K-valued points contain S.
Equivalently, if you imbed A in P N , you may think of ZarA (S) as the projective
subvariety of P N cut out by the ideal of all homogenous polynomial forms whichcontain the set S in their zero-locus.
Now, following the pattern set in our discussion of vector spaces above, definea configuration in the abelian variety A to mean a subset B ⊂ A which is(possibly empty) finite union of translates of abelian subvarieties of A. That is,
B is a configuration in A if
B=n[(aj + Aj )j=1

for elements aj ∈ A and abelian subvarieties Aj ⊂ A.
As with vector spaces, the collection of configurations in an abelian variety A isclosed under arbitrary intersection and finite union, and satisfies the descending
chain condition. Therefore, we can define the “configuration-closure” of a subset
S ⊂ A(K) in A:
Definition. Given an arbitrary subset S ⊂ A(K), the configuration-closure,denoted Conf A (S), of S in A is the smallest configuration C in A such thatS ⊂ C(K).
Clearly, Conf A (S) is a closed subvariety of A containing S, and therefore
ZarA (S) ⊂ Conf A (S).

3. “Absolute” Mordell–Lang in Characteristic Zero:
Theorems of Faltings and Vojta
Now we put these two notions of configuration (for abelian varieties and forvector spaces) together to give two equivalent formulations of the theorem of
Faltings and Vojta. Let A be an abelian variety and S ⊂ A(K) a subset of thegroup A(K) of K-rational points of A.

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Theorem 3.1 (“Absolute” Mordell–Lang in characteristic 0, firstversion). Let K be algebraically closed of characteristic 0. If S ⊂ A(K) generates (or equivalently, is contained in) a finitely generated subgroup of A(K),then the Zariski-closure of S in A is equal to its configuration-closure in A. In
notation,
ZarA (S) = Conf A (S).
This was first proved by Faltings [1994] (the proof in that reference is made¯ but see, for example, [McQuillan 1995]
explicit only for the case of K = Q;
and Section 7 below). Earlier [1991] he had established the special case where¯ and ZarA (S) contains no nontrivial translated abelian subvariety. The
K =Q
techniques of [Faltings 1991] have, as their starting point, Vojta’s proof [1991]
of the classical Mordell Conjecture. The original 1960 article of Lang, which
formulated the special case of the Mordell–Lang conjecture proved in [Faltings1991], is [Lang 1960], and this was followed by stronger versions of the conjecture[Lang 1965; 1974; 1986]. For further developments extending the proofs of theMordell–Lang conjectures to include semi-abelian varieties see [Vojta 1996], andfor the strongest statement of Mordell–Lang (on semi-abelian varieties combinedwith the Manin–Mumford conjecture) in characteristic 0, see [McQuillan 1995].
The “classical” application of Theorem 3.1. Let the abelian variety A
be defined over a number field L and let K be an algebraically closed fieldcontaining L. Denote by A(L) the group of L-rational points of A. Let Z ⊂ A
be a closed subvariety defined over L, and suppose that S := Z(L), the set of
L-rational points of Z, is Zariski-dense in Z. By the theorem of Mordell–Weil(see [Serre 1989, Section 4.3] or [Lang 1991, Chapter I, Theorem 4.1]), A(L)is finitely generated, and so we have Z = ZarA (S) and all the hypotheses ofTheorem 3.1 above are satisfied (S = Z(L) ⊂ A(L) ⊂ A(K), so S is containedin a finitely generated subgroup of A(K)). Therefore, Z is a configuration in A.
To summarize:
Corollary. Let A be an abelian variety defined over a number field L. Anyclosed subvariety of A defined over L which is the Zariski-closure of its set of
L-rational points is a configuration in A; i .e., is a finite union of translates ofabelian subvarieties of A.
Bogomolov and Tschinkel [1999] introduced the term potentially dense to refer
to algebraic varieties V defined over number fields which have the property that,over some (possibly larger) number field L, the variety V is the Zariski-closureof its set V (L) of L-rational points. Another way of expressing the precedingcorollary is to say that the closed subvarieties of an abelian variety that arepotentially dense are precisely the configurations. One of the important projects
in number theory these days is to understand in a more general context which
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is even unknown, at present, whether there exist K3 surfaces which are notpotentially dense! (But see [Bogomolov and Tschinkel 1999] for elliptic K3’s!)
The “classical” Mordell Conjecture can be expressed as simply saying thata smooth projective irreducible algebraic curve defined over a number field ispotentially dense (if and) only if its genus is 0 or 1. The “if” part of this statement
is easy (and isn’t usually packaged as part of the Mordell Conjecture). It is the“only if” assertion that is deep; it follows from the preceding corollary by notingthat if C is a curve of positive genus defined over a number field, then by possible
extension of the number field L we can suppose that C has an L-rational pointc ∈ C. We then can view C as a subvariety of its jacobian, call it A, definedover L, by sending a point x ∈ C to the linear equivalence class of the divisor[x] − [c]. The preceding corollary would then tell us that C is a configuration in
A which can only be the case if its genus is 1.
The format of Theorem 3.1. Theorem 3.1 designates a class of algebraic
varieties (i.e, abelian varieties) and says that if, within a variety in this class, S
is a subset of points satisfying a certain “finiteness property” (i.e., is containedin a finitely generated subgroup of the Mordell–Weil group) then the Zariskiclosure of S is a very restricted type of subvariety (i.e., is a configuration). Are
there analogous results in other settings? For example, take, as class of algebraic
varieties, smooth cubic hypersurfaces in P N . Define the “finiteness property” ona set S of points of a cubic hypersurface V to be: S is contained in a subset of V
which is finitely generated in the sense of the chord-and-tangent process on V .
I ask this question not because I have a sense that it is worthwhile to pursue(nor do I have any specific guess regarding the types of subvarieties of V that
one can get as Zariski-closures of S’s which are finitely generated in the above
sense) but just in order to help us think, for moment, about the formal shapeof Theorem 3.1. In the same vein, one can ask the analogous (Mordell–Lang)question about complex tori (which are not necessarily abelian varieties). I did
so in an early draft of this article, and I am thankful to Anand Pillay for his
affirmative answer to that question; see his proof [Pillay 1999] of the fact that
if T is a complex torus and S ⊂ T a subset which is contained in a finitely
generated subgroup of T , then ZarT (S) = Conf T (S) if we interpret ZarT (S)as the smallest compact complex analytic subvariety of T containing S, andConf T (S) the smallest finite union of translates of complex subtori of T having
the property that S ⊂ Conf T (S).
Theorem 3.1 is equivalent to:
Theorem 3.2 (“Absolute” Mordell–Lang in characteristic 0, second
version). Let K be algebraically closed of characteristic 0, A an abelian variety
defined over K, and suppose that we are given a subset S ⊂ Γ ⊂ A(K), where Γ
is a finitely generated subgroup of A(K). If Γ is Zariski-dense in A, and if theABELIAN VARIETIES AND THE MORDELL–LANG CONJECTURE

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configuration-closure of the image of S in the real vector space V = Γ ⊗ R is allof V , then S is Zariski-dense in A.
Proof of equivalence. Suppose the truth of Theorem 3.1 and the hypothesesof Theorem 3.2. We must prove that S is Zariski-dense in A. So
ZarA (S) = Conf A (S) =n[(aj + Aj ) ⊂ A,

j=1

where the Aj ’s are abelian subvarieties of A and the aj ∈ A(K) are points. PutTSnΓ̃j := (Γ (aj + Aj ) so we have that S ⊂ j=1 Γ̃j . We have put the tilde on theΓ̃j to remind ourselves that Γ̃j isn’t a subgroup of Γ but is rather a coset. Fix
any element γj ∈ Γ̃j and we may write Γ̃j = γj + Γj for some subgroup Γj ⊂ Γ.
Therefore the image of S in V = Γ ⊗ R is contained in the union of thetranslates by the image of γj of Γj ⊗ R for j = 1, . . . , n. Since S is configurationdense in V we must have V = Γj ⊗ R for some j, and for this j, Γj ⊂ Γ must
be a subgroup of Γ of finite index. But if Γ is Zariski-dense in A so is every(coset of every) subgroup of finite index in Γ. We deduce that Aj = A, andsince a translate of Aj is contained in the Zariski-closure of S, it follows that S
is Zariski-dense in A.
Now suppose the hypotheses of Theorem 3.1 and the truth of Theorem 3.2. We
must prove that the conclusion of Theorem 3.1 holds. Consider the real vector
Snspace V = Γ ⊗ R. Let Conf V (S) = j=1 (vj + Vj ) ⊂ V be the configurationclosure of the image of S in V = Γ ⊗ R, where the Vj ’s are real vector subspacesof V and the vj ∈ V are points. Let S̃j ⊂ S be the inverse image of the affineSnsubspace vj + Vj , so that S = j=1 S̃j . Since Theorem 3.1 holds for S if it holds
for each of the S̃j ’s, we need only prove Theorem 3.1 for each S̃j . To do thiswe may, of course, take S̃j to be nonempty. Make a translation of S̃j by any
element s̃j ∈ S̃j to get a set which we denote Sj := S̃j − s̃j and we have that
Conf V (Sj ) = Vj , i.e., is a vector subspace of V . If Γj ⊂ Γ is the subgroup of
all elements in Γ whose image in V lies in Vj , we have the inclusion Sj ⊂ Γj .
By construction, Conf Vj (Sj ) = Vj . Let Ãj ⊂ A be the Zariski-closure of thesubgroup Γj ⊂ A.
If Ãj were connected, then it would be an abelian subvariety of A, and thetriple Sj , Γj , Ãj would satisfy all the hypotheses required to apply Theorem 3.2,
giving that
ZarÃj (Sj ) = Ãj ,thereby proving Theorem 3.1 for S̃j . In general, let Aj ⊂ Ãj be the connectedcomponent containing the identity element, so that Ãj is a finite union of cosetsof Aj . Breaking things up coset by coset, and applying the same argument asabove, allows us to conclude the proof.
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About positive characteristic. In the setting of characteristic p > 0, thestatement analogous to “absolute” Mordell–Lang (Theorem 3.1 or 3.2 above) is
no longer true, as the following well-known counter-example will make clear. If
C is any curve (of positive genus) defined over a finite field k of characteristicp, and if K = k(C) is the function field of C, then let C/K be the curve over K
obtained from C by extending the field of scalars from k to K. We can thinkof C/K as the generic fiber of the constant family π : C × C → C, where π isprojection to the second factor. There is a natural K-valued point, call it c,on C/K , which can be described geometrically as the restriction to the genericfiber of the diagonal section C → C × C. If F = F/k : C/k → C/k is the
Frobenius endomorphism of C/k (defined on local rings by the rule: f 7→ f q
where q = card(k)), denote by the same letter F = F/K : C/K → C/K the basechange of the Frobenius endomorphism to K. For any natural number n, F n (c)is the restriction to the generic fiber of C → C × C of the graph of the n-th
iterate of F/k . The set, S = {F n (c) | n = 1, 2, . . . } ⊂ C(K), of images of c underthese iterations of F/K is an infinite subset whose Zariski closure is therefore theentire curve C/K . The Frobenius endomorphism F acting on C/K induces anendomorphism Φ of the jacobian A/K = Pico (C/K ). Let E := EndK (A) denotethe endomorphism ring of the abelian variety A over K, so that Φ ∈ E. Since C
is of positive genus, we have an imbedding ι : C/K ,→ A/K defined by sendingx ∈ C/K to the linear equivalence class of [x] − [c] in A/K . For any m ≥ 0 wehave
Φm (ι(F c)) = Φm ([F c] − [c]) = [F m+1 c] − [F m c] = ι(F m+1 c) − ι(F m c),and thereforeι(F n c) =n−1XΦj (ι(F c))

j=0

for any n ≥ 1, so that the image of S under ι is contained in E · ι(F c) ⊂ A(K)which is a finitely generated subgroup of A(K) (the endomorphism ring E of theabelian variety A being a finitely generated abelian group).
So ZarA (ιS) = ιC ⊂ A, and therefore if C is of genus > 1, ZarA (ιS) is nota configuration in A despite the fact that ιS is contained in a finitely generated
subgroup of A(K). Therefore one needs to appropriately modify the statementof “absolute Mordell–Lang” if one wishes to obtain a result which is valid incharacteristic p. This is the subject of the next section.

4. “Relative” Mordell–Lang in All Characteristics: Theoremsof Manin, Grauert, Buium, Voloch, Hrushovski, etc.
Theorem 4.1 (“Relative” Mordell–Lang in all characteristics). Letk ⊂ K be an inclusion of algebraically closed fields. Let A be an abelian variety
over K having the property that no positive dimensional factor abelian variety

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of A comes by base extension from an abelian variety over k. Let S ⊂ A(K) bea subset generating a finitely generated subgroup of A(K). Then
ZarA (S) = Conf A (S).
There is, to be sure, a large literature dealing with the “classical version” ofthis theorem by which I mean the special case where X := ZarA (S) is a curve.
This classical case was originally proved by Manin [1963] in characteristic zero.
Another proof of it was given by Grauert [1965]. This latter proof was adaptedby Samuel [1966] to make it work in characteristic p. In 1991, Voloch produced
an extremely short, insightful, proof of this classical theorem under the auxiliary
hypothesis that X is non-isotrivial, and its jacobian is ordinary [Voloch 1991].
To be sure, the statement of Theorem 4.1 in characteristic 0 is weaker than (andtherefore follows immediately from) Theorem 3.1. So, it is only the characteristic p aspect of this theorem that is specifically new to our discussion. Progress towards the above theorem in characteristic p was made in [Abramovich and Voloch
1992], following on Voloch’s approach. The full theorem is due to Hrushovski[1996], who writes that Buium’s approach (to the characteristic 0 part of Theorem 4.1) inspired his own. Buium’s ten-page paper [1992] is quite illuminating,and I would urge anyone who has not yet read it to do so! A certain universal jet
space construction plays critical role in it. Briefly, given any affine smooth Cscheme S with a derivation δ ∈ Der(OS ), and any S-scheme X, Buium constructs
a “pro-X-scheme” (i.e., a projective system of X-schemes) jet(X/S, δ) (call it J,
for short) and he constructs a derivation δJ on J lifting δ on S such that the pair(J, δJ ) satisfies the following universal property. For any pair η = (Y, δY ) where
Y is an X-scheme and δY is a derivation on Y lifting δ on S, there is a unique
X-morphism jet(η) : Y → J = jet(X/S, δ) which is horizontal in the sense thatjet(η) intertwines the derivations δY and δJ . The method of Buium turns on
the properties of jet(X/S, δ) where specifically X is a group scheme over S; thismethod depends especially on the manner in which finitely generated groups of
S-sections in group schemes X lift to jet(X/S, δ). The fact that the theory ofordinary differential equations works so well in the complex analytic category isessential. In characteristic p, things aren’t so smooth-going. People with somealgebraic geometric background who wish to see a bridge between Buium’s techniques and the model-theoretic techniques of Hrushovski might find it useful toread Chapter 2 of Scanlon’s thesis [1997b], where he introduced the notion of
D-rings and D-functors which serve as “jet-theoretic” technology suitable for use
in characteristic p.
As with the Absolute Mordell–Lang Theorem, the “Relative” Mordell–Langresult we have just formulated has an alternate version:
Theorem 4.2 (“Relative” Mordell–Lang in all characteristics, second version). Let k ⊂ K be an inclusion of algebraically closed fields. Let A

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be an abelian variety over K having the property that no positive dimensional
factor abelian variety of A comes by base extension from an abelian variety overk and suppose that we are given a subset S ⊂ Γ ⊂ A(K) where Γ is a finitely
generated subgroup of A(K). If Γ is Zariski-dense in A and the configurationclosure of the image of S in the real vector space V = Γ ⊗ R is all of V , then S
is Zariski-dense in A.
The equivalence between Theorems 4.1 and 4.2 is proved in exactly the same
way as the equivalence between Theorems 3.1 and 3.2 were proved.

5. Models in the Sense of Algebraic Geometry
If you start with the utterly general fields that appear in the statement ofTheorems 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, and 4.2, here is the standard way of cutting down to
the study of reasonably small fields. Consider, for example, the data of any ofthese theorems, say Theorem 4.2: that is, we are given (k, K, A, S) with k ⊂ K,
an inclusion of algebraically closed fields, A an abelian variety over K having
the property that no positive dimensional factor abelian variety of A comes bybase extension from an abelian variety over k, and S ⊂ Γ ⊂ A(K), a subset S
generating Γ, a finitely generated subgroup of A(K). Fix elements {γ1 , . . . , γν }that generate Γ.
If, contrary to the conclusion of Theorem 4.2, we were dealing with a counterexample to the assertion of that theorem, there would be some hypersurface
D ⊂ A which contains S but which does not contain some element γ ∈ Γ − S.
Call such a pair (D, γ) a witness to the fact that A, S, Γ is a counter-example to
Theorem 4.2, or just a witness for short. Similarly we can talk about the notionof “counter-example witness” to Theorem 3.2.
Let k0 ⊂ k denote the prime field (i.e., it is Q if we are in characteristic 0 andF p if we are in characteristic p). Consider a specific set of equations defining
the abelian variety A over K in projective space; for concreteness we can takeA as given as an intersection of a finite collection of quadrics in some highdimensional projective space, following Mumford [1966; 1967]). These equations
have, all in all, only a finite number of coefficients and so do all the coordinates(in projective space) of the finitely many points γ1 , . . . , γν . If we are presented
with a witness (D, γ) to the fact that A, S, Γ is a counter-example, we add tothis set of coefficients of these equations the coefficients of the equations defining
the hypersurface D. Letting C denote the set of all the coefficents enumerated
above, we see that C ⊂ K is finite. It follows that the subfield K0 := k0 (C) ⊂ K
is finitely generated over the prime field k0 , and moreover we have S ⊂ Γ ⊂A(K0 ) (and in the case where we have prescribed witness (D, γ) we can get that
D is defined over K0 as well). We have then, a finitely generated model forour putative witnesses. For example, if we had a witnessed counter-example to
Theorem 3.2 over any algebraically closed field K of characteristic 0 (that is, if
we had A, Γ ⊂ A(K), S ⊂ Γ, S ⊂ D ⊂ A, and γ ∈ Γ with γ ∈/ D, satisfying theABELIAN VARIETIES AND THE MORDELL–LANG CONJECTURE

211

hypotheses required; i.e., that A is an abelian variety, Γ is a finitely generated
subgroup of its group of K-rational points, S is configuration-dense in Γ ⊗ R,
and D a hypersurface in A) the above discussion shows that we would also havesuch a witnessed counter-example all of whose ingredients are given over a field
K0 which is finitely generated over Q.
Corollary 5.1. To prove Theorems 3.1, 3.2, 4.1 and 4.2 it suffices to treat thecase of fields K which are the algebraic closure of fields of finite transcendence
degree over the prime fields; i .e., where K ranges through the algebraic closuresof k0 (x1 , . . . , xd ) (for d = 1, 2, . . .) where the k0 ’s are the prime fields (so that in
the case of Theorems 3.1 and 3.2, k0 = Q), and where in the case of Theorem 4.1
and 4.2, k is an algebraic closure of k0 .
Producing a “complex” or a “p-adic” model. In the case where K is ofcharacteristic 0 it is sometimes useful to make use of complex analytic, or p-adic
analytic methods. Imagine that we have given ourselves a witnessed counterexample to Theorem 3.2, which by Corollary 5.1 can be taken to be over a
field K0 which is of finite transcendence degree over Q. Since any field of finite
transcendence degree over Q is isomorphic to a subfield of C, we may choose
an imbedding K0 ,→ C and make the base change (for our model) from K0 to
C gives us a model over the complex numbers. Similarly, let p be any prime¯ p is the extension of
number, and noting the fact that as an “abstract” field, Q
Q given by adjoining an uncountable number of independent variables and thenpassing to the algebraic closure of the field so obtained, we see that there exists¯ p . Identify, then, K0 with a subfield of Q
¯ p and form thean imbedding K0 ⊂ Q¯
compositum E = Q p · K0 ⊂ Q p . Since K0 is a finitely generated field extension¯ p . It follows thatof Q, E is a finitely generated, algebraic, field extension of Q
¯ p is of finite degree. As before, if we make the base change (for our model)
E/Q
from K0 to E we get our sought-for model over E.
Corollary 5.2. Let p be any fixed prime number . In proving Theorems 3.1
and 3.2 by reductio ad absurdum it suffices to assume that there is a counterexample defined over a finite field extension E of Q p , and then prove its nonexistence.
Call such a putative counter-example a “p-adic model” of a counter-example. If
we wish, we may make a further finite extension of our base field E so that theabelian variety A of our p-adic model over E has semi-stable reduction over the
ring of integers of E (by a theorem of Grothendieck [1972]). As we shall see
below, if we are willing to exclude a finite set of (“bad”) primes p we may findfinite field extensions E/Q p and models over E for which the abelian variety A
has good reduction over the ring of integers of E.
If our original putative counter-example is over a field of characteristic p, asimilar argument as we have just given will allow us to produce a counter-example

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over the field F q ((t)) of (finite-tailed) Laurent series with coefficients in a finite
field F q of cardinality q = a power of p.
In our search for models, we needn’t work only over fields: we can find subrings
r0 ⊂ k0 and r0 ⊂ R0 ⊂ K0 such that r0 and R0 are finitely generated rings overZ, where r0 = F p if K0 is of characteristic p, and r0 = Z[1/m] for some positive
integer m if K0 is of characteristic zero, and such that• the equations for A give us an abelian scheme, call it A0 , such that• the elements γ1 , . . . , γν are R0 -valued points of the R0 -scheme A0 , and• given a specific witness (D, γ), if it exists, the hypersurface D can be taken
to be a relative Cartier divisor over R0 , and denoting W0 := Spec R0 which
is a scheme over w0 := Spec r0 we may also arrange it so that (for fun)
• W0 → w0 is a smooth surjective morphism of schemes.
We therefore have an abelian scheme
A0 → W0 ,over the smooth w0 -scheme W0 with the structures described above. The “picture”, when r0 = Z[1/m], looks as follows:

Abelian scheme A0 over W0

W0

w0 = Spec Z[1/m]

At this point, here are some things we can do:
Producing a “p-adic model” with good reduction. If we are given aputative counter-example model over a field of characteristic 0, then r0 = Z[1/m]for some nonzero integer m, and we have our geometric model A0 → W0 , asabove with witness (D, γ), where the hypersurface D is a relative Cartier divisor
over R0 , and R0 is as described above over Z[1/m], the mapping of schemes π :Spec(R0 ) → Z[1/m] being smooth and surjective. After possibly “augmentingm”, i.e., making the base change Spec(R0 ) 7→ Spec(R0 ⊗Z[1/m] Z[1/m0 ]) for m0
a suitable nonzero multiple of m (we assume this done without changing ourABELIAN VARIETIES AND THE MORDELL–LANG CONJECTURE

213

notation) we can prepare the ring R0 via “Noether normalization” [Bourbaki
1972, Chapter V, Section 4, Corollary 1] so that R0 contains a polynomial ringin a finite number of variables Z[1/m][x1 , . . . , xν ] ⊂ R0 , and such that R0 is
an integral extension of Z[1/m][x1 , . . . , xν ]. Let p be any prime number not
dividing m. We choose any ring homomorphism ξ : Z[1/m][x1 , . . . , xν ] → F p(and, of course, there are some). Now find any system of ν elements αj ∈ Z p(for j = 1, . . . , ν) which are transcendentally independent over Z taking care tochoose them so thatξ(xj ) = αj

mod p,

for j = 1, . . . , ν (and we can do this). We use this system of αj ’s to imbed
Z[1/m][x1 , . . . , xν ] in Z p . Call the imbedding α : Z[1/m][x1 , . . . , xν ] ,→ Z p .
Since R0 is an integral domain, and finitely generated and integral (hence finite)over Z[1/m][x1 , . . . , xν ], we may extend α to an imbedding of R0 into a finite
discrete valuation ring extension O, of Z p . Making the base change from R0 to
O, we transfer our model over R0 to O, and letting E/Q p be the field of fractionsof O, we have constructed a “p-adic model” (over the discrete valued field E) for
which the abelian variety A0 has good reduction over the residue field of E.

6. Proof of Absolute Mordell–Lang in Characteristic 0
for Curves of Rank 1
The beautiful classical argument of Chabauty may be adapted to give anelementary proof of Theorem 3.2 when the rank of Γ is equal to 1. Here is
the briefest sketch of this argument; for a more general statement, see [Hindry
1988, Section 7]. If rank(Γ) = 1 the condition that the configuration-closure of
the image of S in the real vector space V = Γ ⊗ R is all of V boils down tosimply saying that S is infinite. Since Theorem 3.2 would be immediate if A
were of dimension ≤ 1 we may assume that the dimension of A is 2 or more.
Suppose that Theorem 3.2 were false. Then there would be a hypersurface D in A
containing S but not containing Γ. Now there is a “p-adic model” for this. Thatis, there is a prime number p and a finite extension K of Q p admitting the same
situation, i.e., an abelian variety A over K and a hypersurface D ⊂ A over K,
and S ⊂ Γ ⊂ A(K) all with the same properties as before (e.g., S ⊂ D(K)). The
existence of such “p-adic models” is explained in Corollary 5.2 above. Choosesuch a p-adic model, and note that A(K) has the structure of (compact) p-adic
Lie group. Let Γ̄ denote the topological closure of Γ ⊂ A(K), and note that (bythe basic theory of the p-adic logarithm, which identifies an open neighborhoodof A(K) with an open “additive” subgroup in K dim A ) we may identify Γ̄ with a
one-dimensional p-adic Lie subgroup of the p-adic Lie group A(K). Since Γ is
Zariski-dense in A, it follows that any open(-closed) subgroup of finite index in Γ̄is also Zariski-dense in A. Since S is infinite, it has at least one limit point in thep-adic Lie group A(K) and all of the limit points of S lie in D(K) ∩ Γ̄ ⊂ A(K).

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f =0

U

σ

Γ̄

Fix a limit point σ of S. Consider a local equation f for D in a neighborhood
U ⊂ A(K) of σ. We view f as a p-adic analytic function on U ⊂ A(K), andrestricting it to the intersection of U with the p-adic Lie subgroup Γ̄, we see thatf must vanish on some open neighborhood of σ in U ∩ Γ̄ because it vanishes
on the infinite set of points of U ∩ S which has σ as accumulation point. It
follows that Γ̄ is contained in a finite union of translates of D, contradicting the
Zariski-density of Γ.
About effectivity. Before we can discuss the status of effectivity of the above
proof, we have to reformulate the theorem that it proves in a manner so thatthe result is providing something for us, and only then can we unambiguously
ask whether or not our proof is providing that thing “effectively”. One naturalreformulation is to say that given the hypotheses of Theorem 3.2, in the casewhere V is of dimension one, and given any hypersurface D ⊂ A, there are only
a finite number of points in the intersection D ∩ Γ. Now even in this restrictedsetting– the above Chabauty-type argument seems to be giving us the same levelof effectivity (and no more) that the general results of Vojta and Faltings provide.
Namely, we can refine the above argument to give a number-effective statement,
but not, it would seem, a size-effective one. But see [Coleman 1985a]!

7. The Reduction of the Proof of Mordell–Lang to Global
FieldsIt seems that there are (at least) two possible strategies for performing thisreduction step. One approach is suggested in a few words in [Faltings 1994,
Section 5]. We shall, up to a certain point, give a detailed account of how tofollow this out. I say “up to a certain point” because, as the reader will see,we will be asserting that a demonstration given explicitly in the literature fornumber fields, also works for global fields. I am thankful to Paul Vojta forABELIAN VARIETIES AND THE MORDELL–LANG CONJECTURE

215

substantial help here. The alternative strategy requires, among other things,
an excursus about the specialization properties of maximal abelian subvarieties
in subvarieties in abelian varieties (sic). All the essential materials needed forthis second strategy can be found in the literature. (See [Lang 1983, Chapter9], especially Theorem 6.2 and Corollary 6.3, together with either [Hindry 1988,
Appendice I] and, in particular, Lemma A there, or alternatively [Abramovich
1994; McQuillan 1994]. For further background I found [Raynaud 1983a, Section
III] helpful.) We end this section with a sketch of how this second approachworks, spelling out some (minor) aspects of the proof not found in the sources.
I am thankful to Michael McQuillan and Dan Abramovich for substantial help
with this.
First Approach. Recall that, as in Corollary 5.1 above, we know that toprove Theorems 3.1 and 3.2 it suffices to work over base fields K which are
finitely generated over Q. “Filtering” such a K by a sequence of subfields, eachof transcendence degree 1 over the next, we shall see that it suffices to prove
appropriately stated versions of Theorems 3.1 and 3.2:(a) for number fields F , and(b) for fields F of rational functions on curves C over base fields F0 , given that wehave already proved (appropriately stated versions of) Theorems 3.1 and 3.2
for F0 .
In either case, our field F will therefore have the structure of a global field andtherefore it may pay to recall this fundamental notion of global field structure(which was given center stage in Artin–Whaples’ treatment of algebraic number
theory and has kept that position in every subsequent treatment of the subject).
We will be referring specifically to the discussion in [Lang 1983, Chapter 2,
Section 1]. Recall that a valuation v on a field F of characteristic 0 is called proper
if it is nontrivial, and its restriction to Q is either trivial, the negative logarithmof ordinary absolute value or a p-adic valuation for some prime number p. (If F
is of positive characteristic, for the valuation v to be proper, it is also required
to be “well-behaved”, a condition automatically satisfied in characteristic 0; see[Lang 1983].) By a global field structure on a field F we mean a collection of“proper” valuations MF of F , and of multiplicities v 7→ λv > 0 for v ∈ MF suchthat for every x ∈ F ∗ , we have the summation formula with the multiplicities
v 7→ λv ,X
λv · v(x) = 0.
v∈MF

Here we have written things additively, rather than multiplicatively as was donein [Lang 1983]. Our valuations v : F ∗ → R are related to the absolute values| |v there by the standard formula v(x) = −log |x|v .

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Recall that if F is endowed with a global field structure, and E/F is a finite
field extension, there is a unique global field structure on E extending that on
F (for details, again consult loc. cit.).
The examples of global field structures are precisely the fields that enter into
the cases (a) and (b) above. More precisely, if F is a number field, we takeMF to be the standard collection of normalized absolute values corresponding
to the archimedean and non-archimedean places of F and λv the collection ofmultiplicities as set out in [Lang 1983, Chapter 2, Section 1]. If F is expressed
as a field of rational functions of a proper smooth curve C defined over a subfieldF0 ⊂ F , i.e., if we can write F = F0 (C), we may impose a global field structure
on K, again in the standard manner (see loc. cit.). Note that if F is of transcendence degree at least 2 over the prime field, there are many possible global
field structures we can impose on F . Nevertheless (when no confusion can arise)a field F endowed with a specific global field structure will be called a “global
field” and we will denote it (along with its global field structure) simply F .
Given a global field F , with F̄ /F an algebraic closure, it is standard (see [Lang1983, Chapters 3–5] for the details) to define the associated height function onF̄ -rational points of N -dimensional projective space (any N )hF : P N (F̄ ) → R.
If ι : X ,→ P N is a projective variety defined over F , we can restrict the above
height function to F̄ -rational points of X and divide by the degree of X to obtaina height function “on X” which we denote
hF,X,ι : X(F̄ ) → R;that is, hF,X,ι (P ) = d1 · hF (ι(P )) where d = the degree of the projective variety
ι(F ) ⊂ P N . [In the special case where Pic(F ) = Z (e.g., if F = C is a smoothprojective curve), dividing by d has the effect of making the real-valued function
hF,X,ι on the set F (K̄) independent (modulo bounded functions) of the projective
imbedding ι; i.e., it depends only on the global field F and X (mod O(1)). ]Given a global field F , an abelian variety A defined over K, and a line bundle
L over A defined over F , we also have the normalized Néron–Tate height function
on F̄ -rational points of A [Lang 1983, Chapter 5, Section 3]ĥF,A,L : A(K̄) → R.
All of these height functions depend upon the global field structure of F .
The Ueno–Kawamata structures on subvarieties of abelian varieties.
For a compendium of the results we are about to cite, and for complete references
to the literature containing their proofs, see [Lang 1991, Chapter I, Section 6].
Recall Ueno’s Theorem (loc. cit.), which says if X ⊂ A is an irreducible subvariety of an abelian variety (over a field) and if B ⊂ A is the connected componentof the subgroup of translations of A that preserve X, then if Y := X/B ⊂ A/B

ABELIAN VARIETIES AND THE MORDELL–LANG CONJECTURE

217

is the quotient variety of X under the action of the group B we have that Y
is a variety of general type (or, in the terminology of [Lang 1991], is pseudocanonical ). Refer to the morphism X → Y as the Ueno fibration of X. Recall
Kawamata’s Structure Theorem that says if X ⊂ A is an irreducible subvarietyof general type (alias: pseudo-canonical) and the base field is of characteristic 0,
then there is a finite number of proper subvarieties Zi ⊂ X (i = 1, . . . , ν) whose
Ueno fibrations Zi → Yi have positive fiber dimension, and such that any finite
union of translates of nontrivial abelian subvarieties in X is actually contained
in
Z :=

ν
[

Zi ⊂ X.

i=1

Refer to Z ⊂ X as the Kawamata locus of X.
Theorem 7.1 (Faltings, extending the method of Vojta). Let F be a
global field of characteristic 0, A an abelian variety over F , and L any line bundle
over A (defined over F ). Let X ⊂ A be an irreducible subvariety of general type(defined over F ) and Z ⊂ X its Kawamata locus. Then the set of F -rational
points on X not lying in Z has bounded (Néron–Tate) height. That is, there isa bound B such thatĥF,A,L (x) ≤ B
for all x ∈ X(F ) − Z(F ).
For a proof of this the reader might consult [Faltings 1994]; in that reference
Faltings only states the theorem for F a number field, but his proof goes through,word-for-word, for global fields of characteristic 0. Vojta [1993] has given anotheraccount of the proof of this same result (also stated only for number fields, but
he assures me that his account of the proof works as well, with no change, in thecontext of global fields).
We shall now sketch the proof of why the preceding theorem implies Theorem 3.1(and therefore also Theorem 3.2). Firstly, let A be an abelian variety over F
and S ⊂ A(F ) as hypothesized in Theorem 3.1, where F is a field which isfinitely generated over Q. We shall prove Theorem 3.1, in effect, by induction
on the transcendence degree of F , and the dimension of A. We view F with agiven global field structure, coming either because F is a number field, or elseby writing F = F0 (C) where C is a curve. In the latter case, we may assume
by induction that Theorem 3.1 holds for abelian varieties A0 over the field F0 ,and for subsets S0 ⊂ A0 (F0 ) generating finitely generated subgroups. We may
also assume that Theorem 3.1 holds for abelian varieties over F of strictly lower
dimension than the dimension of A. Consider ZarA (S), the Zariski-closure of theset S.

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Step 1. Reduction to the case where ZarA (S) is an irreducible variety of generalS
type. Writing ZarA (S) = j Xj as a finite union of irreducible varieties, we
may cover the set S by a finite union of subsets Sj = S ∩ Xj (F ) and note that it
suffices to prove Theorem 3.1 for each of these Sj ’s separately. We may assume,
therefore, that X := ZarA (S) is irreducible, and then, using Ueno’s Theorem,
we pass to an appropriate quotient abelian variety of A in which X is of general
type. Here, note that in this reduction step we have possibly reduced (but wehave not increased) the dimension of A.
Step 2. Applying the theorem. We apply the above theorem for a choice of
ample line bundle L over A to get that there is a bound B such that S breaks
up into the union of two sets, the part of S contained in Z, S1 := S ∩ Z(F ) andthe part of small height,
S2 := {x ∈ S | ĥF,A,L (x) ≤ B}.
Now we can apply Step 1 again to S1 , and note that here the application of
Step 1 is guaranteed to reduce the dimension of the ambient abelian variety A;
our inductive hypothesis therefore proves Theorem 3.1 for S1 . We may assume,
then, that
S = S2 = {x ∈ S | ĥF,A,L (x) ≤ B}.
If F is a number field, it follows that S is finite, and so again Theorem 3.1
follows. We have reduced ourselves, therefore, to the case where F = F0 (C)and S is of bounded height. After applying Step 1 again, we may assume that
X := ZarA (S) is irreducible (of general type). Let B ⊂ A be the F/F0 -trace (thatis, the “largest abelian subvariety of A defined over F0 ”; [Lang 1991, Chapter I,
Section 4]) and apply [Lang 1983, Chapter 6, Theorem 5.3] to guarantee that S
is contained in a finite union of cosets of B(F0 ) (in A(F )). In particular, S iscontained in a configuration in A consisting of a finite union of translates of B.
We may assume that one of these translates covers X, and translating back to
the origin, we may simply assume now that S ⊂ B(F0 ). Since, by our inductive
hypothesis, Theorem 3.1 holds for the abelian variety B over the field F0 and for
S ⊂ B(F0 ), we are done.
Remarks regarding the second method. Here, as mentioned above, the relevant
literature is [Lang 1983, Chapter 9] and either [Hindry 1988, Appendice I] or[Abramovich 1994; McQuillan 1994]. To be brief, we start by performing Step 1of the first method, and therefore we have reduced ourselves to proving, simply,
that if A is an abelian variety over K a field finitely generated over Q, Γ ⊂ A(K) isa finitely generated group, and X ⊂ A is an irreducible subvariety of general type,then X ∩ Γ is not Zariski dense in X. For short, refer to the triple (A, Γ, X) as
ξ. Also, by induction we assume that this has already been proved for all triples
ξ 0 = (A0 , Γ0 , X 0 ) satisfying the same properties (meaning that A0 an abelianvariety over K, Γ0 a finitely generated subgroup of the Mordell–Weil group of

ABELIAN VARIETIES AND THE MORDELL–LANG CONJECTURE

219

A0 ,and X 0 ⊂ A0 a subvariety of general type) where X 0 is of dimension strictly
smaller than X and dim(A0 ) ≤ dim(A), or A0 is of dimension strictly smaller
than A. Moreover, we assume Mordell–Lang for number fields!
Also, we will be availing ourselves of a good model of ξ over R, an integral
domain and regular, finitely generated over Q, whose field of fractions is K. We
will be explaining what we mean by good presently. But we begin with a modelof the following form: an abelian scheme A over R, and Γ ⊂ A(R) a finitely
generated subgroup of the Mordell–Weil group over R, and X ⊂ A a closed
irreducible subvariety flat over R, such that the fiber of the triple ξR = (A, Γ, X)
over K is ξ.
Ueno–Kawamata collections. For any homomorphism R → K, with K afield, let ξ/K = (A/K , Γ/K , X/K ) denote the “fiber” of our triple over K. We
may apply the Ueno–Kawamata theory to the subvariety X/K ⊂ A/K obtaining
the Kawamata locus Z(X/K , A/K ) ⊂ X/K and after possible finite field extensionSν
of K we may write Z(X/K , A/K ) = j=1 Zj (X/K , A/K ) with Zj geometricallyirreducible, and having Ueno fibrations denoted ηj : Zj → Xj where the mappingηj is induced from the natural projection A → A/Aj for Aj some abelian varietyof positive dimension, and such that Xj ⊂ A/Aj is of general type. We define
inductively, a (finite) set C(A/K , X/K ) of pairs (B, Y ), such a pair consisting ofan abelian subvariety of positive dimension B ⊂ A and an irreducible subvarietyof general type Y ⊂ A/B. For this purpose we note that single points are deemed
to be of general type (and, of course, the Kawamata locus of a point is empty).
An inductive definition of the Ueno–Kawamata Collection can be culled fromthe following axioms:
0. If A/K = 0 then C(A/K , X/K ) is empty.
1. If the Kawamata locus of X/K is empty, and A/K is of positive dimension,then C(A/K , X/K ) consists of the single element (A/K , X/K ).
2. Keep the notation as in the preceding paragraph, but drop the subscript /K
in some of the terms to make it easier to read. For each index 1 ≤ j ≤ νand each pair (B 0 , Y 0 ) ∈ C(A/Aj , Xj ) form the pair (B, Y ) where B ⊂ A isthe abelian subvariety which is the inverse image in A of B 0 ⊂ A/Aj under
the homomorphism A → A/Aj , and where Y ⊂ A/B is the subvariety Y 0 ⊂(A/Aj )/B 0 = A/B. The elements of the set C(A/K , X/K ) are precise all thesepairs (B, Y ) together with the pair (A/K , X/K ).
We have a partial ordering on Ueno–Kawamata collections where, by definition,(B 0 , Y 0 ) ≤ (B, Y ) if B ⊂ B 0 and the inverse image of Y 0 in A/B is containedin Y .
“Good” Models. Consider ξR = (A, Γ, X), as described above, and the Ueno–
Kawamata collections C(A/K , X/K ) for each homomorphism R → K where K isa field. We say that our model is good if there is a collection which we can denote
C(A/R , X/R ) of pairs (B/R , Y/R ) where B/R ⊂ A/R is an abelian subscheme over220

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R, and Y/R ⊂ (A/B)/R is a closed subscheme, flat over R, with the following
property:“The Ueno–Kawamata collection specializes well”: For each R → K,with K a field, the “fiber” of the collection of pairs C(A/R , X/R ) over K (i.e.,the set of pairs (B/K , Y/K ) obtained by restriction to the fiber over K of the pairs(B/R , Y/R ) in C(A/R , X/R )) is the Ueno–Kawamata collection C(A/K , X/K ).
Here one has a choice. One may use the results in [Hindry 1988, Appendice 1](in particular, Lemme A), which guarantee that the generic Kawamata locus
specializes to the special Kawamata locus outside a proper closed subscheme inSpec(R). An alternative argument for this using a method of Abramovich [1994]
is found in [McQuillan 1994], where (loc. cit., Theorem 1.2) it is shown that
there is a closed subscheme of X/R whose fibers (over R) are the Kawamata lociof the fibers of X/R .
An inductive application of these results to the successive tiers in the Ueno–
Kawamata collection allows us to conclude that we have such a “good model”.
Specialization of Γ. Fix a “good model” as described above.
Lemma 1. There exists a closed point u of Spec(R) such that for every pair
(B/R , Y/R ) ∈ C(A/R , X/R ) the specialization mappings of Γ/Γ ∩ B ⊂ (A/B)(R)
to (A/B)(k(u)) is injective; i .e., the specialization mapping allows us to identify
Γ/Γ ∩ B with a subgroup Γ/Γ ∩ B ,→ (A/B)(k(u)). Here k(u) is the residue fieldof the point u ∈ Spec(R).
Proof. Apply [Lang 1974, Chapter 9, Theorem 6.2] to the finitely generated
Q
Q
subgroup Γ/Γ ∩ B of the Mordell–Weil group of the abelian scheme A/B,
where the products range over all abelian subschemes B occurring in pairs in
the Ueno–Kawamata collection C(A/R , X/R ).

Specializing points in the complement of the Kawamata locus. Fix such a closed
point u ∈ Spec(R) with the properties guaranteed by Lemma 1. Let S denote the set of points in Γ/K ∩ X/K which lie outside the Kawamata locus
Z(X/K , A/K ). (We are eventually aiming to prove that S is finite.) For a pair
(B, Y ) ∈ C(A/R , X/R ) consider the subsets S(B, Y ) ⊂ S consisting of thoseelements of S, which when projected to A/B and specialized to k(u) land in
Y (k(u)). Clearly,[
S=
S(B, Y ),where the union is taken over all pairs in the Ueno–Kawamata collection. Givena point y ∈ Y (k(u)) let S(B, Y, y) ⊂ S consist of the elements of S(B, Y ), which
when projected to A/B and specialized to k(u) map to y.
Lemma 2. The sets S(B, Y, y) are finite.
Proof. By the definition of S(B, Y, y) and the injectivity guaranteed by Lemma
1, we have that the projection of the subset S(B, Y, y) ⊂ Γ to Γ/Γ ∩ B consists

ABELIAN VARIETIES AND THE MORDELL–LANG CONJECTURE

221

of a single point, and therefore S(B, Y, y) lies in a coset of the abelian subvariety
B. Since B is of strictly smaller dimension than A, our inductive hypothesis
guarantees that the Zariski-closure of S(B, Y, y) is a union of translates of abeliansubvarieties of B, and since S(B, Y, y) is external to the Kawamata locus of X
this union must only contain abelian varieties of dimension zero, i.e., S(B, Y, y)is finite.
Conclusion of the proof by downwards induction on the dimension of the Y ’s.
Proposition. The set S is finite.
Proof. Consider the following statement:P(N ): The union of the subsets S(B, Y ) where (B, Y ) range through all pairs
in the Ueno–Kawamata locus such that dim(Y ) ≤ N has finite complement inS.
By Lemma 2, we see that P(0) implies that S is finite. Clearly P(d) is true ford = dim(X). For N > 0, suppose P(N ) and we shall show P(N − 1). There are
only finitely many pairs (B, Y ) in the Ueno–Kawamata locus with dim(Y ) = N .
Fix one such pair (B, Y ). Now invoke Mordell–Lang for Y/k(u) : there are only
a finite number of k(u)-rational points of Y/k(u) which lie outside its Kawamata
locus. By Lemma 2, only a finite subset of S which specializes to this finite set ofpoints. Excluding those points, the remainder specialize to the Kawamata locus
of Y , and therefore the complement of a finite subset of S lies in the union of thesubsets S(B 0 , Y 0 ) where (B 0 , Y 0 ) range through all pairs in the Ueno–Kawamata
locus such that dim(Y 0 ) ≤ N − 1, giving our proposition.


8. Number-Effectivity Revisited
In the introduction we asked briefly about possible levels of effectivity wemight hope for in connection with the finiteness of numbers of solutions of a certain class of Diophantine equations (we chose hyper-elliptic curves as our illustrative class). In this section I would like to discuss number-effectivity questions in
the general context of curves of genus at least 2 but with some attention paid touniformity over families of curves and the base fields. As Teresa de Diego [1997]
has explained, the methods of Vojta, Faltings, and Bombieri produce numbereffective upper bounds of a very precise nature. Let X be a smooth projective¯ and consider the “canonical” mapping of X
curve of genus > 0 defined over Q,
to its jacobian (abelian) variety A,
j : X ,→ A
by the rule x 7→ the linear equivalence class of the divisor (2g − 2)[x] − κ, whereκ is (a choice of) canonical divisor for the curve X. Now consider the Néron–¯ → R, where ĥ := ĥQ,A,L
Tate height function ĥ : A(Q)in the notation that¯
we introduced earlier, where L is the “Poincaré” line bundle on the jacobian222

BARRY MAZUR¯ → R with j : X(Q)¯ → A(Q),¯ gives us the
A = jac(X). Composing the ĥ : A(Q)height function on algebraic points of X, which we will continue to refer to as“Néron–Tate height”:ĥ(X, P ) := ĥ(j(P )) ∈ R.
Our height function ĥ(X, P ) is “canonical”, in the sense that it depends uponnothing more than X and P . For our purposes below we need to make a further
normalization of this height function, scaling it relative to the “height” of thecurve X itself. At present, we must do this in a slightly ad hoc way. Eventually
we might want a thoroughly canonical normalization (e.g., perhaps the correct
thing to do is to replace ĥ(X, P ) by the ratioĥ(X, P )p,2
ωX
where ωX is the canonical divisor attached to a semi-stable model of the curve
X over the ring of integers in an appropriate number field, as given in Arakelov’s
Theory; see [Lang 1988]). But a perfectly serviceable, and more down-to-earth
if less canonical, normalization, which works uniformly for families of curves
parametrized by specific quasi-projective varieties, is as follows. Let ι : T ,→ P N
be an irreducible quasi-projective variety which is a parameter space for a familyof curves of genus > 1. That is, we give ourselves a smooth proper family X → T
with fibers Xt equal to (smooth proper) curves of genus > 1 as t ranges through¯¯ define
the Q-rational
points of T . Now, for an algebraic point P ∈ Xt (Q),h(Xt , P ) :=ĥ(Xt , P )p.
1 + hQ,T,ι
¯For example, we can take the hyper-elliptic family y 2 = g(x) discussed in thePdintroduction, where g(x) = j=0 gj xj is a polynomial of degree d (at least 5)
with no multiple roots, and the variety T = Td is the open variety in affine(d + 1)-space over Q (parametrized by g0 , . . . , gd ) which is the complement of
gd = 0 and the discriminant locus.
¯
But fix any quasi-projective variety ι : T ,→ P N over a number field k ⊂ Qwhich parametrizes a family, X → T , of (smooth projective) curves of genus ≥ 2.
For C a positive number, define a C-small point of Xt to be an algebraic point¯ such thatP ∈ Xt (Q)h(Xt , P ) ≤ C,
and a C-large point of X to be one for which the reverse inequality holds, i.e.,h(Xt , P ) > C.
¯ , partition
For Xt be a curve in our family, and an intermediate field k ⊂ L ⊂ Q
the set, Xt (L), of L-rational points on Xt into the set of C-small and C-large
points,a
Xt (L) = Xt (L)small
Xt (L)large .

ABELIAN VARIETIES AND THE MORDELL–LANG CONJECTURE

223

We visibly have a size-estimate on Xt (L)small and, for appropriate choice ofC, we seek a number-estimate on Xt (L)large .
Problem. Given our parametrized family X → T ,→ P N over the number
field k, as above, find three constants C, D and E for which an estimate of thefollowing form holds. For any number field L containing k, and t ∈ T (L),Xt (L)C−large ≤ D · E r(Xt ,L) ,where r(Xt , L) is the rank of the Mordell–Weil group of the jacobian of Xt over L.
As mentioned, de Diego [1997], who establishes uniform estimates, developing
upon methods as given, for example, in [Bombieri 1990], shows that there exist
constants C, D, and E that solve this problem. In fact, de Diego shows that(for any family as above) there is a choice of C for which:r(Xt ,L),|Xt (L)C−large | ≤ 55
2 ·7

for all number fields L containing k and points t ∈ T (L). Of course, what is
missing here is an explicit evaluation of a constant C = C(X, T, ι) that does theabove job.
In the recent work of A. Pacheco, there are similar estimates for curves overfinite fields replacing number fields (but with further complications due to inseparability phenomena).
In view of a solution to the preceding problem, we might hope for an upperbound with better uniformity in the sense that it would involve only the genusof the curve and the quantity r(X, L). We might ask for the following stronger
assertion than the above (this being, at the same time, weaker than the question
about uniform number-effectivity posed on page 201 (Question 3).
Question. If X is a (smooth projective) curve over a field L, let g(L) denote its
genus; let X(L) denote the set of its L-rational points, and r(X, L) the rank of
the group of L-rational points of the jacobian of X. Is there a function N (g, L, r)with the property that

|X(L)| ≤ N g(X), L, r(X, L) ,where L ranges through all number fields, and X ranges through all (smoothprojective) curves over L of genus ≥ 2?
In the direction of achieving effective results in characteristic p, Buium andVoloch [1996] establish an affirmative answer to the question analogous to thequestion above in the case where X is a curve defined over a field K (of characteristic p) and the jacobian of X is ordinary and such that no non-trivial factorof the jacobian is definable over K p . Specifically, they show that
|X(L)| ≤ pr(X,K) · (3p)g · (8g − 2)g!,where g = g(X) ≥ 2.

224

BARRY MAZUR

Returning to characteristic 0, Buium [1993; 1994] has shown:
Proposition (Buium). Let X be a closed (possibly singular ) curve in an abelianvariety A (over the complex numbers) and let Γ be a subgroup of A(C) of rank r.
Assume that X is of geometric genus g ≥ 2 and its normalisation is not definedover the field of algebraic numbers. Set N = max{g, r, 4}. Then the cardinalityof X(C) ∩ Γ ⊂ A(C) is at most N (!)6N +6 , where (!)m means factorial iterated
m times.
In e-mail correspondence, Buium noted to me the curious fact that the boundjust quoted for characteristic zero is much worse than the one proved in [Buium
and Voloch 1993] for characteristic p. In the higher-dimensional situation (butover number fields) one has the very interesting preprint [Hrushovski and Pillay1998], which gives a related uniform upper bound. This work makes use of thepowerful methods explained in this conference; their context is as follows. One
is given a subvariety X ⊂ A in a (semi-) abelian variety both defined over anumber field contained in C and one assumes that X contains no subvarieties ofthe form X1 + X2 ⊂ A, for X1 , X2 positive dimensional varieties. One considers
finitely generated subgroups Γ ⊂ A(C) and seeks an upper bound for the number¯
of nonalgebraic points in X ∩ Γ, i.e., for |X ∩ Γ − X(Q)|.
Letting r := rank(Γ),¯ isthe upper bound given in [Hrushovski and Pillay 1998] for |X ∩ Γ − X(Q)|doubly exponential in r. More specificially, the upper bound is of the formcra(br) ,
where a, b, c are explicit, and quite computable, functions of X and A.
The double exponential upper bound in this result of Hrushovski and Pillay
raises the hope (as Buium mentioned to me in e-mail correspondence) that theiterated factorial upper bound obtained in the non-isotrival context (i.e., in the
proposition of Buium quoted above) will eventually be significantly improved.

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Barry Mazur
Department of Mathematics
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
United Statesmazur@math.harvard.edu