On the non-vanishing of $p$-adic heights on CM abelian varieties, and the arithmetic of Katz $p$-adic $L$-functions

Abstract: Let $B$ be a simple CM abelian variety over a CM field $E$, $p$ a rational prime. Suppose that $B$ has potentially ordinary reduction above $p$ and is self-dual with root number $-1$. Under some further conditions, we prove the generic non-vanishing of (cyclotomic) $p$-adic heights on $B$ along anticyclotomic $\Z_{p}$-extensions of $E$. This provides evidence towards Schneider's conjecture on the non-vanishing of $p$-adic heights. For CM elliptic curves over $\Q$, the result was previously known as a consequence of work of Bertrand, Gross--Zagier and Rohrlich in the 1980s. Our proof is based on non-vanishing results for Katz $p$-adic $L$-functions and a Gross--Zagier formula relating the latter to families of rational points on $B$.