A \(K3\) surface related to Leonardo Pisano's work on congruent numbers (Q6056572): Difference between revisions

This paper recasts the early result on congruent numbers by Leonardo Pisano, in terms of a specific \(K3\) surface and an elliptic fibration on this surface. Pisano's theorem on congruent numbers is formulated in the following Theorem 1. Given integers \(m>n>0\), if three of \(m, n, m-n, m+n\) are squares, then the fourth one is a congruent number. It is a well-known fact that an integer \(N\) is a congruent number means the existence of a rational point on the intersection of quadrics \(v^2-N=u^2; v^2+N=w^2\). The curve defined by these equations is birational to the elliptic curve \(Y^2=X^3-N^2X\) via the specific map (and its inverse). From Theorem 1, there are four possibilites; (i): \(n\) is congruent; (ii) \(m\) is congruent; (iii) \(m-n\) is congruent, and (iv) \(m+n\) is congruent. In each case, there result in an explicit \(K3\) surface defined over \(\mathbb{Q}\), that are twists of each other and identified as Kummer surfaces of a product of elliptic curves with \(j\)-invariant \(1728\). These \(K3\) surfaces are covered by certain twists of the Fermat quartic surface. (i) corresponds to an elliptic \(K3\) surface \(Y^2=X^3-(t^3-t^2)X\) (a singular \(K3\) surface); (ii) to \(Y^2=X^3-(t^4+4)^2X\); (iii) to \(Y^2=X^3-(t^4-6t^2+1)^2X\), and (iv) to \(Y^2=X^3-(t^4+6t^2+1)^2X\).