The unirationality of certain elliptic surfaces in characteristic p (Q1062107)

Consider two classes of elliptic surfaces defined by the following equations over an algebraically closed field k of characteristic p \(\geq 5:\) \((I)\quad y^ 2=4x^ 3-t^ 3(t-1)^ 3(t-\alpha)^ 3x;\) \((II)\quad y^ 2=4x^ 3-t^ 5(t-1)^ 5(t-\alpha)^ 5(t-\beta)^ 5(t-\gamma)^ 5;\) where t is an inhomogeneous coordinate of \({\mathbb{P}}^ 1\) and \(\alpha\), \(\beta\), \(\gamma\) are arbitrary elements in k. Le X be a nonsingular projective model of the above surface. Then it is shown that: (i) The elliptic surface X defined by the equation (I) is unirational iff \(p\equiv 3 mod 4\); (ii) The elliptic surface X defined by the equation (II) is unirational iff \(p\equiv 2 mod 3\). This article is a continuation of the author's previous article [ibid. 33, 521-553 (1981; Zbl 0466.14008)], and the proof contains interesting computations of various invariants, e.g., Lefschetz number \(B_ 2(X)-\rho (X)\), in terms of the number of singular fibers.