# Faltings’ theorem

Let $K$ be a number field and let $C/K$ be a non-singular curve defined over $K$ and genus $g$. When the genus is $0$, the curve is isomorphic to $\mathbb{P}^{1}$ (over an algebraic closure $\overline{K}$) and therefore $C(K)$ is either empty or equal to $\mathbb{P}^{1}(K)$ (in particular $C(K)$ is infinite). If the genus of $C$ is $1$ and $C(K)$ contains at least one point over $K$ then $C/K$ is an elliptic curve and the Mordell-Weil theorem shows that $C(K)$ is a finitely generated abelian group (in particular, $C(K)$ may be finite or infinite). However, if $g\geq 2$, Mordell conjectured in $1922$ that $C(K)$ cannot be infinite. This was first proven by Faltings in $1983$.

###### Theorem (Faltings’ Theorem (Mordell’s conjecture)).

Let $K$ be a number field and let $C/K$ be a non-singular curve defined over $K$ of genus $g\geq 2$. Then $C(K)$ is finite.

The reader may also be interested in Siegel’s theorem.

Title Faltings’ theorem FaltingsTheorem 2013-03-22 15:57:21 2013-03-22 15:57:21 alozano (2414) alozano (2414) 5 alozano (2414) Theorem msc 14G05 msc 14H99 Mordell’s conjecture SiegelsTheorem