Density of rational points on diagonal quartic surfaces

DOI10.2140/ANT.2010.4.1MaRDI QIDQ969261zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Adam Logan, David McKinnon, Ronald van Luijk

Publication date 6 May 2010

Published in Algebra \& Number Theory (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0812.4779

zbMATH Keywords

diagonal surfaceselliptic surfacesK3 surfacesquartic surfacesrational points

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Cubic and quartic Diophantine equations (11D25) Varieties over global fields (11G35) Rational points (14G05) Elliptic surfaces, elliptic or Calabi-Yau fibrations (14J27) (K3) surfaces and Enriques surfaces (14J28)

Abstract: Let a,b,c,d be nonzero rational numbers whose product is a square, and let V be the diagonal quartic surface in PP^3 defined by ax^4+by^4+cz^4+dw^4=0. We prove that if V contains a rational point that does not lie on any of the 48 lines on V or on any of the coordinate planes, then the set of rational points on V is dense in both the Zariski topology and the real analytic topology.

Review text

Let \(a,b,c,d\) be nonzero rational numbers such that \(abcd\) is a square and \(V\) the surface in \({\mathbb P}^3\) defined by the equation \(ax^4+by^4+cz^4+dw^4=0\). Suppose that \(V\) contains a rational point \(P = (x_0:y_0:z_0:w_0)\) with \(x_0y_0z_0w_0 \neq 0\) which does not lie on any of the 48 lines of the surface. In this paper, it is proved that the set of rational points of the surface is dense in both the Zariski and the real analytic topology. The authors exhibit two endomorphisms \(e_1\) and \(e_2\) of \(V\) such that \(e_1(P)\) and \(e_2(P)\) are two points over \({\mathbb Q}(\sqrt{abcd})\). Each of these points is the unique last point of intersection between \(V\) and one of the two tangent lines to the singular node in the intersection between \(V\) and the tangent plane to \(V\) at \(P\). The surface \(V\) has two elliptic fibrations and each fibration is fixed by one of \(e_1\) and \(e_2\). Let \(C_i\) be the fibre of the fibration fixed by \(e_i\) that passes through \(P\). This is a curve and its divisor \((e_i(P))-(P)\) is almost never a torsion divisor. Hence that fibres with rational points tend to have positive rank and the result follows.

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Cited in

(9)

• Higher-dimensional Calabi-Yau varieties with dense sets of rational points
• Density of integer solutions to diagonal quadratic forms
• On a diagonal quadric in dense variables
• Rational points on diagonal quartic surfaces
• Constructions of diagonal quartic and sextic surfaces with infinitely many rational points
• Density of rational points on certain surfaces
• Density of rational points on plane curves
• Non-rational varieties with the Hilbert Property
• A note on the Diophantine equation (x^2-1)(y^2-1)=(z^2-1)^2

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