Construction of elliptic curves with high rank via the invariants of the Weyl groups (Q1184408)

This paper gives a method for constructing elliptic curves over \(\mathbb{Q}(t)\) or \(k(t)\) with relatively high rank (up to 8), where \(k\) is any field of characteristic zero or \(p\), with the exception of a finite number of \(p\)'s (cf. remark at \S4). It gives explicitly the rational points which generate the Mordell-Weil-group. This method is based on the theory of Mordell-Weil-lattices [the author, Proc. Japan Acad., Ser. 65, 268-271 (1989; Zbl 0715.14015)] and an important role is played by the invariants of the Weyl groups. As an example, consider the elliptic curve \[ E:y^ 2=x^ 3+x\left(\sum^ 3_{i=0}p_ it^ i\right)+\left(\sum^ 3_{i=0}q_ it^ i+t^ 5\right)\leqno (1) \] defined over \(k_ 0(t)\), where \(k_ 0=\mathbb{Q}(p_ 0,\ldots,p_ 3,q_ 0,\ldots,q_ 3)\). The equation (1) defines a family of affine surfaces, which is known at the universal deformation of the rational double point of type \(E_ 8\) parametrized by \(\lambda=(p_ i,q_ j)\in\mathbb{Q}^ 8\). Suppose that \(\lambda\) is generic, i.e., \(p_ 0,\ldots,q_ 3\) are algebraically independent over \(\mathbb{Q}\). Let \(k=\overline {k_ 0}\). Then the elliptic surface defined by (1) has no reducible fibres, therefore its Mordell-Weil-lattice \(E(k(t))\) has rank 8 (cf. \S4). Moreover, it is even unimodular, hence isomorphic to the root lattice \(E_ 8\). Let \(\kappa\) be the smallest extension of \(k_ 0\) such that \(E(k(t))=E(\kappa(t))\). Then, the author proves that \(\kappa/k_ 0\) is Galois with Galois group equal to the Weyl group of type \(E_ 8\), denoted by \(W(E_ 8)\). He also proves that \[ \kappa=k_ 0(u_ 1,\ldots,u_ 8)=\mathbb{Q}(u_ 1,\ldots,u_ 8),\leqno (2) \] \[ \mathbb{Q}[u_ 1,\ldots,u_ 8]^{W(E_ 8)}=\mathbb{Q}[p_ 0,\ldots,q_ 3],\leqno (3) \] where in (3) the left-hand side denotes the elements of \(\mathbb{Q}[u_ 1,\ldots,u_ 8]\) invariant by \(W(E_ 8)\). The parameters \(u_ 1,\ldots,u_ 8\) correspond to the basis of the root system \(E_ 8\) and they are defined by the specialization morphism \(\text{sp}_ \infty:E(k(t))\to\mathbb{G}_ a(k)\) from the Mordell-Weil-group to the singular fibre of (1) at \(t=\infty\). Equation (3) says that the coefficients \(p_ 0,\ldots,q_ 3\) of the elliptic curve (1) form the fundamental invariants of the Weyl group \(W(E_ 8)\). --- Furthermore, there exists a basis \(\{P_ 1,\ldots,P_ 8\}\) of the Mordell-Weil-group \(E(\kappa(t))\) such that \(\text{sp}_ \infty(P_ i)=u_ i\), with \(P_ i=(x_ i,y_ i)\), where \(x_ i\) and \(y_ i\) are polynomials in \(t\) with coefficients in \(\mathbb{Q}[u_ 1,\ldots,u_ 8][u_ i^{- 1}]\cup\mathbb{Q}(p_ 0,\ldots,q_ 3)(u_ i)\) of the form (4) \(x_ i=u_ i^{-2}t^ 2+a_ it+b_ i\), (5) \(y_ i=u_ i^{-3}t^ 3+c_ it^ 2+d_ it+e_ i\). To obtain an equation of an elliptic curve over \(\mathbb{Q}(t)\) with rank 8, it suffices to specialize \(u_ 1,\ldots,u_ 8\) to some rational numbers in such a way that the rank remains the same, or equivalently, that the Mordell-Weil-lattice does not ``degenerate''. --- The author proves similar results for the root lattices \(E_ 7\), \(E_ 6\), \(D_ 4\) and \(E_ 2\).