TITLE: Injection of $E(\mathbb{Q})_{\text{tors}}$ into $\tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_p)$?
QUESTION [11 upvotes]: I'm looking at Example VII.3.3.3 (p.193, 2nd ed.) of Silverman's The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves. We have the elliptic curve $E:y^2=x^3+x$, with discriminant $\Delta=-64$, so there is good reduction for all primes $p\geq 3$. It is noted that $(0,0)$ is a point of order two in $E(\mathbb{Q})$, and that 
 $$\tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_3)=\{\mathcal{O},(0,0),(2,1),(2,2)\}\cong\mathbb{Z}/4\mathbb{Z}$$
 $$\tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_5)=\{\mathcal{O},(0,0),(2,0),(3,0)\}\cong(\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})^2$$
Then it is said that

Since $E(\mathbb{Q})_{\text{tors}}$ injects into both of these groups, we see that $(0,0)$ is the only nonzero torsion point in $E(\mathbb{Q})$.

Now, my understanding of Proposition VII.3.1b (p.192, 2nd ed.) is that for any discretely valued local field $K$ with residue field $k$, the reduction map from $E(K)[m]$ to $\tilde{E}(k)$ is injective for all $\gcd(m,\text{char}(k))=1$, where $E(K)[m]$ denotes the $m$-torsion subgroup of $E(K)$. So, we are looking at the compositions
$$E(\mathbb{Q})[m]\hookrightarrow E(\mathbb{Q}_3)[m]\hookrightarrow \tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_3)\quad\text{ for all }3\nmid m$$
$$E(\mathbb{Q})[n]\hookrightarrow E(\mathbb{Q}_5)[n]\hookrightarrow \tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_5)\quad\text{ for all }5\nmid n$$
It seems the best we can say (I think) is that the $3$-torsion-free part of $E(\mathbb{Q})_{\text{tors}}$ injects into $\tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_3)$, and the $5$-torsion-free part of $E(\mathbb{Q})_{\text{tors}}$ injects into $\tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_5)$. This still clearly implies that $E(\mathbb{Q})_{\text{tors}}$ must be of order 2 in this particular case, because $\tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_5)$ is $3$-torsion-free and $\tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_3)$ is $5$-torsion-free; but it seems to me that the reasoning in the block-quoted statement (at least without further explanation) is technically wrong.
If $p$ is a prime of good reduction for $E$, then is it true that all of $E(\mathbb{Q})_{\text{tors}}$ injects into $\tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_p)$, or just that $E(\mathbb{Q})_{\text{tors}}[m]$ injects into $\tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_p)$ for any $m$ relatively prime to $p$ (and hence the $p$-torsion-free part of $E(\mathbb{Q})_{\text{tors}}$ injects into $\tilde{E}(\mathbb{F}_p)$)?

REPLY [7 votes]: Let $K$ be a discretely valued field whose residue field is perfect of characteristic $p$, and let $E$ be an elliptic curve over $K$ with good reduction.  If one supposes further that the absolute ramification index $e$ of $K$ is $< p-1$,
then it follows that the reduction map is injective on the $K$-rational $p$-power torsion points of $E$.  As you already noted, the reduction map is automatically injective on the prime-to-$p$ torsion, and so we conclude that (when $e < p-1$) the reduction map is injective on all the $K$-rational torsion.
There are various ways to see the claimed injectivity.  One is via a consideration of the formal group, and another is via the theory of finite flat group schemes.  The rough idea is that any non-trivial $p$-torsion point which reduces to the identity (and hence lies in the points of the formal group) is the solution to an Eisenstein polynomial of degree divisible by $p-1$.  If $e < p-1$ then such a polynomial can
have no roots in $K$, and so the non-trivial $K$-rational $p$-torsion points cannot lie in the formal group.
If one considers the particular case when $K = \mathbb Q$ or $\mathbb Q_p$ equipped with the $p$-adic valuation, where $p$ is an odd prime, then $e = 1 < p-1$, and this result applies.  This is what Silverman is using.
I think this is discussed somewhere in Silverman, although I forget whether it is treated in the general form described above, or just in the particular case of odd primes $p$ in $\mathbb Q$.