# Some properties of the distribution of the numbers of points on elliptic curves over a finite prime field

## TL;DR

This paper investigates the distribution of the number of points on elliptic curves over finite prime fields, providing explicit evaluations of sums involving the trace of Frobenius for various parameters and congruence classes.

## Contribution

It offers new explicit formulas for sums of Frobenius traces on elliptic curves over finite fields, using elementary exponential sum techniques and quadratic form results.

## Key findings

- Derived formulas for sums of Frobenius traces over finite fields.
- Evaluated sums for specific congruence classes of primes.
- Provided an explicit cubic sum formula for primes congruent to 5 mod 6.

## Abstract

Let $p \geq 5$ be a prime and for $a, b \in \mathbb{F}_{p}$, let $E_{a,b}$ denote the elliptic curve over $\mathbb{F}_{p}$ with equation $y^2=x^3+a\,x + b$. As usual define the trace of Frobenius $a_{p,\,a,\,b}$ by \begin{equation*} \#E_{a,b}(\mathbb{F}_{p}) = p+1 -a_{p,\,a,\,b}. \end{equation*} We use elementary facts about exponential sums and known results about binary quadratic forms over finite fields to evaluate the sums $\sum_{t\in\mathbb{F}_{p}} a_{p,\, t,\, b}$, $\sum _{t \in \mathbb{F}_{p}} a_{p,\,a,\, t}$, $ \sum_{t=0}^{p-1}a_{p,\,t,\,b}^{2}$, $ \sum_{t=0}^{p-1}a_{p,\,a,\,t}^{2}$ and $ \sum_{t=0}^{p-1}a_{p,\,t,\,b}^{3}$ for primes $p$ in various congruence classes. As an example of our results, we prove the following: Let $p \equiv 5$ $($mod 6$)$ be prime and let $b \in \mathbb{F}_{p}^{*}$. Then \begin{equation*} \sum_{t=0}^{p-1}a_{p,\,t,\,b}^{3}= -p\left((p-2)\left(\frac{-2}{p}\right) +2p\right)\left(\frac{b}{p}\right). \end{equation*}