Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Let K be a fixed number field, assumed to be Galois over ℚ. Let r and f be fixed integers with f positive. Given an elliptic curve E, defined over K, we consider the problem of counting the number of degree f prime ideals of K with trace of Frobenius equal to r. Except in the case f = 2, we show that ‘on average,’ the number of such prime ideals with norm less than or equal to x satisfies an asymptotic identity that is in accordance with standard heuristics. This work is related to the classical Lang–Trotter conjecture and extends the work of several authors.