An interesting elliptic surface over an elliptic curve (Q2381156)

The authors investigate the elliptic modular surface attached to the commutator subgroup \(\Gamma^{\prime}\) of the full modular group \(\text{SL}(2,{\mathbb Z})\). Let \(S=S(\Gamma^{\prime})\) denote the elliptic modular surface attached to \(\Gamma^{\prime}\). The surface \(S\) has the modular curve as a base curve (\(\eta^2=\xi^3-12^3\)), and over the base, \(S\) is defined by the elliptic curve \(E: y^2=x^3-27\xi x-54\eta\). \(S\) has only one singular fiber of type \(I_6^*\). Furthermore, \(S\) has the geometric genus \(p_g=1\), and Hodge numbers \(h^{0,0}=h^{2,2}=1, h^{1,0}=h^{0,1}=1, h^{2,0}=h^{0,2}=1 \) and \(h^{1,1}=12\). Thus the second Betti number of \(S\) is \(B_2=14\). Moreover, \(S\) is extremal so that the Picard number \(\rho(S)=h^{1,1}(S)=12\) (and the Mordell--Weil rank \(0\)). This implies that the transcendental lattice \(T(S)\) is of rank \(2\). \(S\) has a model defined over \({\mathbb Q}\). Thus there is a cups form of weight \(3\) with respect to the commutator subgroup \(\Gamma^{\prime}\). The main result is formulated in the following Theorem. Up to the Euler factors at \(2\) and \(3\), the Hasse-Weil zeta-function of \(S/{\mathbb Q}\) is given by \[ \zeta(S/{\mathbb Q},s)={{\zeta(s)\zeta(s-1)^{12}L(\eta(\tau)^6,s) \zeta(s-2)}\over{L(\eta(\tau)^4,s)L(\eta(\tau)^4,s-1)}} \] where \(\eta(\tau)\) is the Dedekind eta function. As applications of the theorem, the rank of the elliptic curve \(E\), the Mordell-Weil lattice, the discriminant of \(S\), etc. in positive characteristic are determined explicitly.