1 Introduction
1.1 The statement of the main result
Let E be an elliptic curve of conductor N over
$\mathbb {Q}$
and
$p \geq 5$
be a prime of good ordinary reduction for E such that
-
(Im) the mod p Galois representation
$\overline {\rho } : G_{\mathbb {Q}} = \mathrm {Gal}(\overline {\mathbb {Q}}/\mathbb {Q}) \to \mathrm {Aut}_{\mathbb {F}_p}(E[p]) \simeq \mathrm {GL}_2(\mathbb {F}_p)$ is surjective, and
-
(Ram)
$\overline {\rho }$ is ramified at every prime dividing N, so p does not divide Tamagawa factors of E.
Let K be an imaginary quadratic field of odd discriminant
$-D_K < -4$
with
$(D_K, Np) = 1$
such that
-
(Spl) p splits in K, and
-
(Na)
$a_p(E) \not \equiv 1\ \pmod {p}$ .
Write

where a prime divisor of
$N^+$
splits in K and a prime divisor of
$N^- $
is inert in K.
-
(Def) Assume that
$N^-$ is a square-free product of an odd number of primes.
Let
$K_\infty $
be the anticyclotomic
$\mathbb {Z}_p$
-extension of K and
$K_n$
be the subextension of K in
$K_\infty $
of degree
$p^n$
for
$n \geq 0$
. Let
$\Lambda _n = \mathbb {Z}_p[\mathrm {Gal}(K_n/K)] \simeq \mathbb {Z}_p[X]/( (1+X)^{p^n} - 1 )$
be the finite layer Iwasawa algebra. Under (Def), denote by

Bertolini–Darmon’s theta element of E over
$K_n$
which interpolates the square-roots of
$L(E/K, \chi , 1)$
for finite order characters
$\chi $
on
$\mathrm {Gal}(K_n/K)$
. It is reviewed in Section 2. For the natural projection map
$\pi _{n, n-1} : \Lambda _{n} \to \Lambda _{n-1}$
, let
$\nu _{n-1, n} : \Lambda _{n-1} \to \Lambda _n$
be the map defined by
$\sigma \mapsto \sum _{\pi _{n, n-1}(\tau ) = \sigma } \tau $
. For
$0 \leq m \leq n$
, we write
$\nu _{m, n} = \nu _{n-1, n} \circ \nu _{n-2, n-1} \circ \cdots \circ \nu _{m, m+1} $
. Then we have the equality of ideals of
$\Lambda _n$
(Lemma 2.1)

and it is a principal ideal under (Na) (Lemma 2.2).
The goal of this article is to prove the following anticyclotomic analogue of the “strong” main conjecture of Kurihara [Reference Kurihara14, Conjecture 0.3], which refines the “weak” main conjecture of Mazur and Tate [Reference Mazur and Tate15, Conjecture 3].
Theorem 1.1 Under the assumptions mentioned above, i.e., (Im),(Ram),(Spl),(Na), and (Def), the theta elements over
$K_m$
with
$0 \leq m \leq n$
generate the initial Fitting ideal of dual Selmer groups over
$K_n$
, i.e., we have equality of ideals of
$\Lambda _n$

which is indeed a principal ideal, where
$\mathrm {Sel}(K_n, E[p^\infty ])$
is the classical Selmer group of
$E[p^\infty ]$
over
$K_n$
and
$(-)^\vee $
means the Pontryagin dual.
Since theta elements interpolate the square-roots of twisted Rankin–Selberg L-values, it is natural that the square of the ideal generated by theta elements appears in the equality.
The strategy of our proof follows that given in [Reference Kim and Kurihara11] and we also add some details on the “p-destabilization” process and on the comparison of various anticyclotomic Selmer groups of elliptic curves.
2 Bertolini–Darmon’s theta elements and anticyclotomic p-adic L-functions
We quickly review the construction of Gross points of conductor
$p^n$
, theta elements, and anticyclotomic p-adic L-functions. See [Reference Chida and Hsieh4, Reference Chida and Hsieh5, Reference Kim10] for details.
2.1 Gross points
Let K be the imaginary quadratic field of odd discriminant
$-D_K < - 4$
. Define

so that
$\mathcal {O}_K = \mathbb {Z} + \mathbb {Z}\vartheta $
. Let
$B_{N^-}$
be the definite quaternion algebra over
$\mathbb {Q}$
of discriminant
$N^-$
. Then there exists an embedding
$\Psi :K \hookrightarrow B_{N^-}$
[Reference Vignéras20]. More explicitly, we choose a K-basis
$(1,J)$
of
$B_{N^-}$
so that
$B_{N^-} = K \oplus K \cdot J$
such that
$\beta := J^2 \in \mathbb {Q}^\times $
with
$\beta <0$
,
$J \cdot t = \overline {t} \cdot J$
for all
$t \in K$
,
$\beta \in \left ( \mathbb {Z}^\times _q \right )^2$
for all
$q \mid pN^+$
, and
$\beta \in \mathbb {Z}^\times _q$
for all
$q \mid D_K$
. Fix a square root
$\sqrt {\beta } \in \overline {\mathbb {Q}}$
of
$\beta $
. For a
$\mathbb {Z}$
-module A, write
$\widehat {A} = A \otimes \widehat {\mathbb {Z}}$
. Fix an isomorphism

as follows:
-
• For each finite place
$q \mid N^+p$ , the isomorphism
$i_q : B_{N^-,q} \simeq \mathrm {M}_2(\mathbb {Q}_q)$ is defined by
$\mathrm {trd}$ and
$\mathrm {nrd}$ are the reduced trace and the reduced norm on B, respectively.
-
• For each finite place
$q \nmid pN^+$ , the isomorphism
$i_q : B_{N^-,q} \simeq \mathrm {M}_2(\mathbb {Q}_q)$ is chosen so that
$i_q \left ( \mathcal {O}_K \otimes \mathbb {Z}_q \right ) \subseteq \mathrm {M}_2(\mathbb {Z}_q) $ .
Under the fixed isomorphism i, for any rational prime q, the local Gross point
${\varsigma _q \in B^\times _{N^-,q}}$
is defined as follows:
-
•
$\varsigma _q := 1$ in
$B^\times _{N^-,q}$ for
$q \nmid pN^+$ .
-
•
$\varsigma _q := \frac {1}{\sqrt {D_K}}\cdot \left ( \begin {matrix} \vartheta & \overline {\vartheta } \\ 1 & 1 \end {matrix} \right ) \in \mathrm {GL}_2(K_{\mathfrak {q}}) = \mathrm {GL}_2(\mathbb {Q}_q) $ for
$q \mid N^+$ with
$q = \mathfrak {q} \overline {\mathfrak {q}}$ in
$\mathcal {O}_K$ .
-
•
$\varsigma ^{(n)}_p = \left ( \begin {matrix} \vartheta & -1 \\ 1 & 0 \end {matrix} \right ) \cdot \left ( \begin {matrix} p^n & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end {matrix} \right ) \in \mathrm {GL}_2(K_{\mathfrak {p}}) = \mathrm {GL}_2( \mathbb {Q}_{p} )$ where
$p = \mathfrak {p}\overline {\mathfrak {p}}$ splits in K.
Let
$\widehat {\Psi } : \widehat {K} \hookrightarrow \widehat {B}_{N^-}$
be the adelic version of
$\Psi $
. We define
$x_n : \widehat {K}^\times \to \widehat {B}^\times _{N^-}$
by
$x_n(a) = \widehat {\Psi }(a) \cdot \varsigma ^{(n)} := \widehat {\Psi }(a) \cdot \left ( \varsigma ^{(n)}_p \times \prod _{q \neq p} \varsigma _q \right )$
. The collection
$\left \lbrace x_n(a) : a \in \widehat {K}^\times \right \rbrace $
of points is called the Gross points of conductor
$p^n$
on
$\widehat {B}^\times _{N^-}$
. The fixed embedding
$K \hookrightarrow B_{N^-}$
also induces an optimal embedding of
$\mathcal {O}_n = \mathbb {Z}+p^n \mathcal {O}_K$
into the Eichler order
$B_{N^-} \cap \varsigma ^{(n)}\widehat {R}_{N^+}(\varsigma ^{(n)})^{-1}$
where
$R_{N^+}$
is the Eichler order of level
$N^+$
under the fixed isomorphism i.
2.2 Theta elements
Let
$f(z) = \sum _{n \geq 1} a_n q^n \in S_{2}(\Gamma _0(N))$
be the cuspidal newform of weight two with rational Fourier coefficients corresponding to E via the modularity theorem [Reference Breuil, Conrad, Diamond and Taylor3]. Let
$\phi _f : B^\times _{N^-} \backslash \widehat {B}^{\times }_{N^-} / \widehat {R}^\times _{N^+} \to \mathbb {C}$
be the Jacquet–Langlands transfer of f. Since
$B^\times _{N^-} \backslash \widehat {B}^{\times }_{N^-} / \widehat {R}^\times _{N^+}$
is a finite set and f is a Hecke eigenform, we are able to and do normalize

such that the image of
$\phi _f $
does not lie in
$p\mathbb {Z}_p$
. This integral normalization is related to the congruence ideals [Reference Kim9, Reference Kim and Ota12, Reference Pollack and Weston16]. Let

where
$\mathcal {G}_n = K^\times \backslash \widehat {K}^\times / \widehat {\mathcal {O}}^\times _n $
and
$[a]$
is the image of
$a \in \widehat {K}^\times $
in
$\mathcal {G}_n$
. Then Bertolini–Darmon’s theta element
$\theta (E/K_n)$
of E over
$K_n$
is defined by the image of
$\widetilde {\theta }_n(E/K)$
in
$\Lambda _n$

where the map is naturally induced from the quotient map
$\mathcal {G}_n \to \mathrm {Gal}(K_n/K)$
. It is known that
$\theta (E/K_n)$
interpolates “an half of”
$L(E, \chi , 1)$
where
$ \chi $
runs over characters on
$\mathrm {Gal}(K_n/K)$
. See [Reference Chida and Hsieh5, Remark (iii) after Theorem A] for the precise meaning of “an half of”. Because
$\theta (E/K_n)$
depends on the choice of Gross points,
$\theta (E/K_n)$
is well-defined only up to multiplication by
$\mathrm {Gal}(K_n/K)$
.
2.3 p-adic L-functions
Let
$\alpha , \beta $
be the roots of the Hecke polynomial
$X^2 - a_pX + p$
of f at p. Since f is ordinary at p, one of them, say
$\alpha $
, is a p-adic unit.
The p
-stabilization
$f_\alpha \in S_{2}(\Gamma _0(Np))$
of f is defined by

whose
$U_p$
-eigenvalue is
$\alpha $
. Then the theta element of
$f_\alpha $
over
$K_n$
is characterized by the following relation:

It is known that theta elements of E satisfies the three term relation (e.g., [Reference Darmon and Iovita6, Lemma 2.6])

and the theta elements of
$f_\alpha $
satisfy the norm compatibility

Let
$\iota $
be the involution on
$\Lambda _n$
defined by inverting group-like elements, so we have

We define the anticyclotomic p -adic L -function of E by

This element is well-defined. The functional equation for Bertolini–Darmon’s theta elements yields the equality of ideals of
$\Lambda $
(e.g., [Reference Bertolini and Darmon1, Proposition 2.13], [Reference Bertolini and Darmon2, Lemma 1.5])

We prove two useful lemmas.
Lemma 2.1 We have an equality of ideals of
$\Lambda _n$

Proof From the three term relation (2.2), we have

for
$n \geq 2$
. Since
$\nu _{n-1, n} \left ( \pi _{n, n-1} \left ( \theta (E/K_{n}) \right ) \right ) = f_n \cdot \theta (E/K_{n})$
for some
$f_n \in \Lambda _n$
, we have

In the same manner, we can obtain

By taking
$\nu _{n-1, n}$
, we have

By applying this argument recursively, the conclusion follows.
Lemma 2.2 Under (Spl) and (Na), we have an equality of ideals of
$\Lambda _n$

Proof By the definition of the p-stabilization (2.1), we have one inclusion
$\supseteq $
. Hence, we focus on the opposite inclusion. By the interpolation formula of the anticyclotomic p-adic L-functions [Reference Chida and Hsieh5, Theorem A] under (Spl), we have the comparison of (the square-roots of) L-values

Under (Na), we have equality in
$\mathbb {Z}_p$

so we have
$(\theta (E/K)) \subseteq (\theta (f_\alpha /K))$
. In fact, they are the same ideal. From (2.1) and (2.3), we have

for some
$f_1 \in \Lambda _1$
. This shows that
$\theta (E/K_{1}) = g_{1} \cdot \theta (f_\alpha /K_{1})$
for some
$g_{1} \in \Lambda _{1}$
.
We suppose that
$\theta (E/K_{n-1}) = g_{n-1} \cdot \theta (f_\alpha /K_{n-1})$
for some
$g_{n-1} \in \Lambda _{n-1}$
.

for some
$f_n \in \Lambda _n$
. This shows that
$\theta (E/K_{n}) = g_{n} \cdot \theta (f_\alpha /K_{n})$
for some
$g_{n} \in \Lambda _{n}$
. By induction, we have inclusion

so we also have

Since
$\nu _{n-1, n} \left ( \theta (f_\alpha /K_{n-1}) \right ) = f_{n} \cdot \theta (f_\alpha /K_n)$
, we have

The conclusion follows.
3 Comparison of Selmer groups
3.1 Local properties of Galois representations
Let
$\rho : G_{\mathbb {Q}} \to \mathrm {Aut}_{\mathbb {Q}_p}(V) = \mathrm {GL}_2(\mathbb {Q}_p)$
be the two-dimensional Galois representation associated with E.
-
• Since E is good ordinary at p, we have
$$ \begin{align*}\rho \vert_{ G_{\mathbb{Q}_p} } \sim \begin{pmatrix} \chi^{-1}_{\alpha} \cdot \chi_{\mathrm{cyc}} & * \\ 0 & \chi_{\alpha} \end{pmatrix}\end{align*} $$
$\chi _{\alpha }$ is the unramified character sending the arithmetic Frobenius at p to
$\alpha $ .
-
• For
$\ell $ dividing N exactly, we also have
$$ \begin{align*}\rho \vert_{ G_{\mathbb{Q}_\ell} } \sim \begin{pmatrix} \pm \chi_{\mathrm{cyc}} & * \\ 0 & \pm \mathbf{1} \end{pmatrix} .\end{align*} $$
For a rational prime v dividing
$N^-p$
, we consider the following subspaces:
-
• For
$v= p$ , let
$F^+V \subseteq V$ be the subspace on which the inertia subgroup
$I_v$ acts by
$\chi _{\mathrm {cyc}}$ .
-
• For a rational prime v dividing
$N^-$ ,
$F^+V \subseteq V$ be the subspace on which the inertia subgroup
$I_v$ acts by
$\chi _{\mathrm {cyc}}$ or
$\chi _{\mathrm {cyc}} \tau _v$ where
$\tau _v$ is the non-trivial unramified quadratic character of
$G_{\mathbb {Q}_v}$ .
Let L be an algebraic extension of K. For a prime w of L dividing
$N^-p$
, we define the ordinary local condition of V at w by

Denote by
$T = \varprojlim _k E[p^k]$
the p-adic Tate module of E, so we have
$T \otimes _{\mathbb {Z}_p} \mathbb {Q}_p = V$
, and by
$E[p^\infty ] = \varinjlim _k E[p^k]$
the p-power torsion points of E. Then the same local conditions for T,
$T/p^kT$
,
$E[p^\infty ]$
, and
$E[p^k]$
are defined by propagation.
3.2
$N^-$
-ordinary (residual) Selmer groups
Let
$\Sigma $
be the finite set of places of
$\mathbb {Q}$
consisting of the places dividing
$Np\infty $
, and
$K_\Sigma $
be the maximal extension of K unramified outside
$\Sigma $
. We write
-
•
$\Sigma ^+ \subseteq \Sigma $ to be the subset of
$\Sigma $ consisting of the places not dividing
$p\infty $ which split in
$K/\mathbb {Q}$ , and
-
•
$\Sigma ^- \subseteq \Sigma $ to be the subset of
$\Sigma $ consisting of the places not dividing
$p\infty $ which are inert in
$K/\mathbb {Q}$ .
For a place w of
$K_\infty $
, we write
$w \in \Sigma ^{\pm }$
if w divides a rational prime
$\ell $
contained in
$\Sigma ^{\pm }$
, respectively. For every
$k \geq 1$
, we define the
$N^-$
-ordinary (and
$N^+$
-strict) Selmer group of
$E[p^k]$
$\mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p^k])$
by the kernel of the map

and define
$\mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ]) = \varinjlim _k \mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p^k])$
. This is the Selmer group used in the bipartite Euler system argument [Reference Bertolini and Darmon2, Definition 2.8].
3.3 Minimal and Greenberg Selmer groups
We follow the convention of [Reference Pollack and Weston16, Section 3.1]. The minimal Selmer group
$\mathrm {Sel}_{\mathrm {min}}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$
of
$E[p^\infty ]$
is defined by the kernel of the map

and the Greenberg Selmer group
$\mathrm {Sel}_{\mathrm {Gr}}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$
of
$E[p^\infty ]$
is defined by the kernel of the map

where
$I_{\infty , w}$
is the inertia subgroup of
$G_{K_{\infty ,w}}$
. Under (Ram),
$\overline {\rho }$
is ramified at every prime dividing N, so p does not divide any Tamagawa factors. Then by using [Reference Pollack and Weston16, Lemma 3.4], we have an isomorphism

3.4 The comparison
We recall the final displayed equation in the proof of [Reference Pollack and Weston16, Proposition 3.6]:

where w runs over the primes of
$K_\infty $
dividing
$N^+$
. The local conditions at primes dividing
$N^-$
of minimal Selmer groups and
$N^-$
-ordinary Selmer groups coincide since such primes split completely in
$K_\infty /K$
. Thus, we have inclusion

which is of finite index and is independent of k.
Proposition 3.1 If
$\mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$
is
$\Lambda $
-cotorsion with vanishing of
$\mu $
-invariant, then
$\mathrm {Sel}_{\mathrm {min}}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$
is also
$\Lambda $
-cotorsion with vanishing of
$\mu $
-invariant.
Proof We have
$\mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])[p] = \mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p])$
since
$N^-$
-ordinary Selmer groups of
$E[p^\infty ]$
are defined as the injective limit of
$N^-$
-ordinary Selmer groups of
$E[p^k]$
. By the assumption,
$\mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p])$
is finite as noted in the proof of [Reference Kim, Pollack and Weston13, Corollary 2.3]. Since the inclusion
$\mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p]) \subseteq \mathrm {Sel}_{\mathrm {min}}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])[p]$
is of finite index,
$\mathrm {Sel}_{\mathrm {min}}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])[p]$
is also finite. By the same reasoning, the conclusion follows.
Proposition 3.2 Under (Im), if
$\mathrm {Sel}_{\mathrm {min}}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$
is
$\Lambda $
-cotorsion, then
$\mathrm {Sel}_{\mathrm {min}}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$
has no proper
$\Lambda $
-submodule of finite index. Thus, we have

Proof This follows from [Reference Greenberg and Viola7, Proposition 4.14], which covers the cyclotomic case actually, but the argument generalizes to our setting as mentioned in the proof of [Reference Pollack and Weston16, Proposition 3.6].
The following corollary follows from (3.1) and the above two propositions.
Corollary 3.3 Under (Im) and (Ram), if
$\mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$
is
$\Lambda $
-cotorsion with vanishing of
$\mu $
-invariant, we have isomorphisms

4 The proof of the main theorem via Iwasawa theory
We first gather some tools from Iwasawa theory and give a proof of Theorem 1.1.
4.1 Iwasawa theory
The anticyclotomic main conjecture for
$(E,p, K)$
is now completely known for our setting.
Theorem 4.1 Under (Im),(Ram),(Spl),(Na), and (Def), we have the following statements.
-
(1)
$L_p(E/K_\infty )$ is non-zero.
-
(2)
$\mu (L_p(E/K_\infty ))= 0 $ .
-
(3)
$\mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$ is
$\Lambda $ -cotorsion with vanishing of
$\mu $ -invariants.
-
(4)
$\left ( L_p(E/K_\infty ) \right ) = \mathrm {char}_\Lambda \left ( \mathrm {Sel}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])^\vee \right )$ .
Proof
-
(1) It is proved in [Reference Vatsal18].
-
(2) It is proved in [Reference Vatsal19].
-
(3) This follows from (1), (2), and the Euler system divisibility
$$ \begin{align*}\left( L_p(E/K_\infty) \right) \subseteq \mathrm{char}_\Lambda \left( \mathrm{Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty, E[p^\infty])^\vee \right)\end{align*} $$
-
(4) By using (3) and Corollary 3.3, we can identify
$\mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$ with the minimal Selmer group. By [Reference Greenberg and Viola7, Proposition 2.1], the minimal Selmer group also coincides with the classical Selmer group. The opposite divisibility
$$ \begin{align*}\left( L_p(E/K_\infty) \right) \supseteq \mathrm{char}_\Lambda \left( \mathrm{Sel}(K_\infty, E[p^\infty])^\vee \right)\end{align*} $$
Corollary 4.2 Under (Im),(Ram),(Na), and (Def), the classical Selmer group
$\mathrm {Sel}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$
has no proper
$\Lambda $
-submodule of finite index; thus,

Proof By Theorem 4.1.(3),
$\mathrm {Sel}_{N^-}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$
is
$\Lambda $
-cotorsion. By Proposition 3.1,
$\mathrm {Sel}_{\mathrm {min}}(K_\infty , E[p^\infty ])$
is also
$\Lambda $
-cotorsion. The conclusion follows from Proposition 3.2 and the identification of the minimal Selmer group and the classical Selmer group.
We recall the control theorem.
Proposition 4.3 (Control theorem)
Let . Under (Im), (Na), and (Def), the restriction map

is injective with the finite cokernel whose size is bounded independently of n. If we further assume (Ram), then it is an isomorphism.
Proof See [Reference Chida and Hsieh4, Proposition 1.9] with the identifications of Selmer groups in Corollaries 3.3 and 4.2.
4.2 The proof of Theorem 1.1
By the anticyclotomic main conjecture (Theorem 4.1), we have

By Corollary 4.2, the above equality becomes

Under the quotient map
$\Lambda \to \Lambda _n = \Lambda / \omega _n$
, it becomes

since Fitting ideals are compatible with base change. By using the functional equation of theta elements (2.4) and the control theorem (Proposition 4.3), we have

Theorem 1.1 now follows from Lemma 2.2, and the ideal is principal thanks to the above equality.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Rob Pollack and Masato Kurihara very much. Rob Pollack first suggested me to think about this problem when I was a Ph.D. student and I was able to solve it after having the discussions with Masato Kurihara. In particular, I learned the idea of the proof of Lemma 2.2 on the p-destabilization process from the discussion with Masato Kurihara at his home, January 3, 2017. The main result of this article partially refines that of [Reference Kim8]. We are grateful to thank the referee for pointing out inaccuracies and unrefined writings. The explanation is greatly improved in the revised version following the referee’s suggestions.
Funding
C.-H.K. was partially supported by research funds for newly appointed professors of Jeonbuk National University in 2024, and by Global-Learning & Academic research institution for Master’s Ph.D. Students, and Postdocs (LAMP) Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (Grant No. RS-2024-00443714).