Cyclic covers of rational elliptic surfaces (Q1047544)

In this paper the Mordell-Weil rank of 37 families of elliptic surfaces over \(\mathbb P^1\) is calculated. Let \(\pi_1:E_1\to \mathbb P^1\) be an elliptic surface. For a point \(t\in \mathbb P^1\) denote by \(e_t\) the Euler characteristic of the fiber, by \(f_t\) the conductor of the fiber, and set \(n_t=n\) if the fiber is of type \(I_n\) or \(I_n^*\) and \(n_t=0\) otherwise. Let \(\pi_r:E_r\to \mathbb P^1\) be the compactification of the Néron model of the pullback of \(\pi_1\) under the map \(t\mapsto t^r\). Set \(\gamma(E_r):=\sum_{t\neq 0,\infty} (f_t-e_t/6)-n_0/6-n_\infty/6\). In this paper the Morell-Weil rank of \(E_t\) is provided when \(E_1\) is a rational elliptic surface with \(\gamma(E_1)<1\). The highest obtained rank is 56, which is to the reviewer's knowledge the highest known Mordell-Weil rank for an elliptic curve \(E/\mathbb C(t)\) with non-constant \(j\)-invariant.