TITLE: order of an elliptic curve
QUESTION [9 upvotes]: I have found that the curve given by $x^3+x+1=y^2$ over $\mathbb{F_5}$ has 9 points. Now I am supposed to find the number of points of the same curve on $\mathbb{F}_{125}$. Using Hasse and the fact that 9 has to divide this order I have 5 possibilities: $108,117,126,135,144$ but here I don't know how to proceed.

REPLY [4 votes]: I've been sleeping with Silverman and Tate's Rational Points on Elliptic Curves under my pillow for years now, with no effect.  So here's the simple country coder's approach.  (Spoiler: yes, 108 points.)
To construct the field $\mathbb{F}_{125}$ we need a cubic irreducible over $\mathbb{F}_5$.  As irreducibility for a cubic amounts merely to the absence of linear factors, and especially as the problem statement already includes $p(X) = X^3+X+1$, we begin by verifying its irreducibility "mod 5":
irreduciblePoly :-
    for(X,0,4,1),
    0 is (1 + X*(1+X*X)) mod 5,
    !,
    fail.
irreduciblePoly.

This is a Prolog predicate that succeeds if there are no roots (linear factors) modulo 5.  It uses a generator for/4 of integers specific to Amzi! Prolog, but SWI-Prolog has a similar built-in between/3 and GNU-Prolog provides both between/3 and for/3.
Since this polynomial passes muster, we implement the field operations plus/3 and times/3 in terms of quadratic polynomials that are reductions modulo $p(X)$ and 5.  The addition of field elements is just adding like-coefficients:
plus(fElt(A0,A1,A2),fElt(B0,B1,B2),fElt(C0,C1,C2)) :-
    C0 is (A0+B0) mod 5,
    C1 is (A1+B1) mod 5,
    C2 is (A2+B2) mod 5.

Multiplication is fancier, but easily derived from $X^3=-X-1$ and $X^4 = -X^2-X$:
times(fElt(A0,A1,A2),fElt(B0,B1,B2),fElt(C0,C1,C2)) :-
    C0 is (A0*B0 - A2*B1 - A1*B2) mod 5,
    C1 is (A1*B0 + A0*B1 - A2*B1 - A1*B2 - A2*B2) mod 5,
    C2 is (A2*B0 + A1*B1 + A0*B2 - A2*B2) mod 5.

Pinning a note to my sleeve to remember to count the "point at infinity", the plan is to check all the values of $p(X)$ over $\mathbb{F}_{125}$ which are zero (one point on the curve) or which are (nonzero) quadratic residues (two points on the curve):
points(125,P,P) :- !.
points(N,P,R) :-
    intoField(N,FElt),
    evalPoly(FElt,Poly),
    increase(Poly,P,Q),
    On is N+1,
    points(On,Q,R).  /* last call */

so that we can run the query ?- points(0,1,Pts).  (The 1 is the point at infinity!)
Here intoField/2 handily maps integers $0\leq N \leq 124$ into 125 field elements:
intoField(N,fElt(A0,A1,A2)) :-
    A0 is N mod 5,
    A1 is (N // 5) mod 5,
    A2 is (N // 25).

so that we can evaluate the polynomial for each of them:
evalPoly(FElt,Poly) :-
    times(FElt,FElt,FSqr),
    plus(fElt(1,0,0),FSqr,Pm),
    times(FElt,Pm,Pn),
    plus(fElt(1,0,0),Pn,Poly).

and adjust the point count accordingly:
increase(fElt(0,0,0),P,Q) :- !, Q is P+1.
increase(Poly,P,Q) :-
    quadResidue(Poly),
    !,
    Q is P+2.
increase(_,P,P).

I pre-built a "lookup" of quadratic residues quadResidue/2 by squaring each field element and assert'ing it (a Prolog mechanism to create facts dynamically), if not already there:
assertQuadraticResidues :-
    for(N,1,124,1),
    intoField(N,FElt),
    times(FElt,FElt,QRes),
    (   quadResidue(QRes)
     -> true
     ;  assert(quadResidue(QRes))
    ),
    fail.
assertQuadraticResidues.

Now we can run the code interpretively:
?- assertQuadraticResidues.

yes
?- points(0,1,Pts).

Pts = 108 

yes

confirming the Answer most elegantly obtained by Jyrki.