Elliptic curves of conductor $2^m p$, quadratic twists, and Watkins' conjecture

Abstract

Let $\mathsf{E}/\mathbb{Q}$ be an elliptic curve. By the modularity theorem, it admits a surjection from a modular curve $X_0(N) \to \mathsf{E}$, and the minimal degree among such maps is called the modular degree of $\mathsf{E}$. By the Mordell--Weil Theorem, $\mathsf{E}(\mathbb{Q})\simeq \mathbb{Z}^r \oplus T$ for some nonnegative integer $r$ and some finite group $T$. Watkins' Conjecture predicts that $2^r$ divides the modular degree, thus suggesting an intriguing link between these geometrically- and algebraically-defined invariants. We offer some new cases of Watkins' Conjecture, specifically for elliptic curves with additive reduction at $2$, good reduction outside of at most two odd primes, and a rational point of order two.