Heron quadrilaterals via elliptic curves (Q2409597)

A positive integer \(n\) is a \textit{congruent number} if it is the area of a right triangle with rational sides or, equivalently, if the elliptic curve \(E_n: y^2=x^3-n^2x\) has positive rank. The authors generalize this to cyclic quadrilaterals with rational sides \(a,b,c,d\) and area \(n\) by adding a rational parameter \(\alpha:=\frac{a^2+b^2-c^2+d^2}{2}\) (which collapses to 0 for right triangles with \(d=0\) and hypotenuse \(c\)) and defining \((\alpha,n)\) a \textit{generalized congruent pair} if the elliptic curve \(E_{(\alpha,n)}:y^2=x^3+\alpha x^2-n^2 x\) has positive rank. The paper deals with such curves showing the explicit correspondence between rational cyclic quadrilaterals and elliptic curves \(E_{(\alpha,n)}\) with positive rank, but also taking care of the case of curves of rank 0 which correspond to squares or to isosceles trapezoids with 3 equal sides (the distinction between them depends on the torsion of \(E_{(\alpha,n)}\)). Going on with explicit formulas and direct computations, the authors also provide a description of the torsion of the \(E_{(\alpha,n)}\) arising from quadrilaterals and conclude the paper with families of curves of rank at least 3, 4 and 5, pointing out a few curves of rank 10 inside one of them.