GENUS PERIODS, GENUS POINTS AND CONGRUENT NUMBER PROBLEM

Abstract

In this paper, based on an idea of Tian we establish a new sufficient condition for a positive integer n to be a congruent number in terms of the Legendre symbols for the prime factors of n. Our criterion generalizes previous results of Heegner, Birch-Stephens, Monsky, and Tian, and conjecturally provides a list of positive density of congruent numbers. Our method of proving the criterion is to give formulae for the analytic Tate-Shafarevich number L(n) in terms of the so-called genus periods and genus points. These formulae are derived from the Waldspurger formula and the generalized Gross-Zagier formula of Yuan-Zhang-Zhang.