The GL₂ main conjecture for elliptic curves without complex multiplication

The main conjectures of Iwasawa theory provide the only general method known at present for studying the mysterious relationship between purely arithmetic problems and the special values of complex L-functions, typified by the conjecture of Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer and its generalizations. Our goal in the present paper is to develop algebraic techniques which enable us to formulate a precise version of such a main conjecture for motives over a large class of p-adic Lie extensions of number fields. The paper ends by formulating and briefly discussing the main conjecture for an elliptic curve E over the rationals Q over the field generated by the coordinates of its p-power division points, where p is a prime greater than 3 of good ordinary reduction for E.