Elliptic Curve Variants of the Least Quadratic Nonresidue Problem and Linnik's Theorem

Abstract

Let $E_1$ and $E_2$ be $\overline{\mathbb{Q}}$-nonisogenous, semistable elliptic curves over $\mathbb{Q}$, having respective conductors $N_{E_1}$ and $N_{E_2}$ and both without complex multiplication. For each prime $p$, denote by $a_{E_i}(p) := p+1-\#E_i(\mathbb{F}_p)$ the trace of Frobenius. Under the assumption of the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis (GRH) for the convolved symmetric power $L$-functions $L(s, \mathrm{Sym}^i E_1\otimes\mathrm{Sym}^j E_2)$ where $i,j\in\{0,1,2\}$, we prove an explicit result that can be stated succinctly as follows: there exists a prime $p\nmid N_{E_1}N_{E_2}$ such that $a_{E_1}(p)a_{E_2}(p)<0$ and \[ p < \big( (32+o(1))\cdot \log N_{E_1} N_{E_2}\big)^2. \] This improves and makes explicit a result of Bucur and Kedlaya. Now, if $I\subset[-1,1]$ is a subinterval with Sato-Tate measure $μ$ and if the symmetric power $L$-functions $L(s, \mathrm{Sym}^k E_1)$ are functorial and satisfy GRH for all $k \le 8/μ$, we employ similar techniques to prove an explicit result that can be stated succinctly as follows: there exists a prime $p\nmid N_{E_1}$ such that $a_{E_1}(p)/(2\sqrt{p})\in I$ and \[ p < \left((21+o(1)) \cdot μ^{-2}\log (N_{E_1}/μ)\right)^2. \]