Computing Selmer groups associated to mod p Galois representations

Abstract

We present methods to compute Selmer groups associated to mod p Galois representations rho over a number field K, with a particular focus on comparing their ranks with periods coming from cohomology classes associated to rho by Serre's conjecture. This provides evidence for a loose version of a "mod p Bloch-Kato conjecture", where the vanishing of a period is predicted to capture the presence of rank in a Selmer group. Our methods are explicit, and implemented in Magma.