Uniformity of stably integral points on elliptic curves (Q1359221)

Let \(X\) be a variety of logarithmic general type defined over a number field \(K\). Denote by \(S\) a finite set of places in \(K\) and \(\mathcal{O}_{K,S}\) the ring of \(S\)-integers. Let \(\mathcal{X}\) be a model of \(X\) over Spec\(( \mathcal{O}_{K,S})\). A generalization of Siegel's theorem and Mordell's conjecture was posed by Lang and Vojta [\textit{P. Vojta}, A higher dimensional Mordell conjecture, in Arithmetic geometry, Pap. Conf., Storrs/Conn. 1984, 341--353 (1986; Zbl 0605.14019)] and says that the set of \(S\)-integral points \(\mathcal{X} (\mathcal{O}_{K,S})\) is Zariski dense in \(\mathcal{X}\). In the case where \(X\) is a projective variety, \(S\)-integer points on \(\mathcal{X}\) are naturally identified with \(K\)-rational points on \(X\) and the latter conjecture is known as Lang's conjecture. Recently \textit{L. Caporaso, J. Harris} and \textit{B. Mazur} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 10, No. 1, 1--35 (1997; Zbl 0872.14017)] applied Lang's conjecture to show that if it holds, then the number of rational points in a curve of genus \(g\geq 2\) over a number field is uniformly bounded (in terms of \(g\)). Behind this application there is a nice geometric result which says: given a smooth family of curves \(X\rightarrow B\) of curves of genus \( g\geq 2\), denote by \(X_{B}^{n}\rightarrow B\) the \(n\)-th fibered power of \(X\) over \(B\). If \(n\) is big enough then \(X_{B}^{n}\) dominates a variety of general type. In this paper the author studies a similar implication for elliptic curves over number fields. More precisely, let \(E\) be an elliptic curve over a number field \(K\). \(P\in E(K)\) is said to be stably \(S\)-integral (denoted by \( P\in E(K,S)\)) if \(P\) is \(S\)-integral after semistable reduction. His main result (in terms of points) states that for any number field \(K\) and any finite set of places \(S\) in \(K\) there exists an integer \(N(K,S)\) such that for every elliptic curve \(E/K\), \[ \#E(K,S)<N(K,S), \] under the assumption of the validity of Lang-Vojta's conjecture. One is tempted to ask whether Lang-Vojta's conjecture implies a uniform bound for the number of \(S\)-integral points of elliptic curves over number fields \(K\). The author gives an example where this does not hold in such a general form. However, by restricting himself to stably minimal elliptic curves \(\mathcal{E}\) over Spec\((\mathcal{O}_{K,S})\) he is able to show that Lang-Vojta's conjecture implies that \(\#\mathcal{E}(\mathcal{O}_{K,S})\) is bounded by a constant \(N(K,S)\) depending only on \(K\) and \(S\). As a consequence he obtains that the number of integral points on semistable elliptic curves over \(\mathbb{Q}\) is bounded. There is another conjecture of Lang related to this last result which asks whether the number of \(S\)-integral points of quasi-minimal elliptic curves \(E \) defined over number fields \(K\) is bounded in terms of the rank of \(E(K)\), \( \#S\) and \(K\). As the author reports, the referee suggested that a more natural statement of his latter result would be that the number of integral points on the Néron model of \(E\) should be bounded similarly. The best result known is due to \textit{M. Hindry} and \textit{J. H. Silverman} [Invent. Math. 93, 419--450 (1988; Zbl 0657.14018)], but it also depends on Szpiro's ratio (which is conjecturally bounded). However, if we replace \(K\) by a one variable function field \(K\) defined over an algebraically closed field \(k\), this conjecture is indeed a theorem due to \textit{L. Szpiro} [Discriminant et conducteur d'une courbe elliptique, Astérisque 183, 7--18 (1990; Zbl 0742.14026)]. M. Hindry and J. H. Silverman [loc. cit.] obtained the desired bound in this context when char\((k)=0\) and the reviewer in [\textit{A. Pacheco}, Integral points on elliptic curves over function fields of positive characteristic, Bull. Aust. Math. Soc. 58, 353--357 (1998; Zbl 0923.11088)] when \(\text{char} (k)=p>3\).