Variation of the canonical height on elliptic surfaces. II: Local analyticity properties (Q1335262)

[For part I of this paper see J. Reine Angew. Math. 426, 151-178 (1992; Zbl 0739.14023).] Let \(E \to C\) be an elliptic surface defined over a number field \(K\), let \(P : C \to E\) be a section, and for each \(t \in C (\overline K)\), let \(\widehat h(P_ t)\) be the canonical height of \(P_ t \in E_ t (\overline K)\). \textit{J. Tate} [Am. J. Math. 105, 287-294 (1983; Zbl 0618.14019)] has used a global argument to show that, up to a bounded quantity, the function \(t\mapsto\widehat h(P_ t)\) is equal to a Weil height function on \(C\). In part I of this paper [loc. cit.], the author presented several examples to show that the function \(t \mapsto \widehat h(P_ t)\) is much better behaved than one would expect an arbitrary Weil function to be. In the paper under review the author analyzes the local canonical height function \(t\mapsto \widehat \lambda_ v (P_ t)\) and shows that it has reasonably nice \(v\)-adic analyticity properties.