Bounded ranks and Diophantine error terms (Q2278879)

The Mordell-Weil Theorem states that the group of \(k\)-rational points in an elliptic curve \(E\) (or more generally an abelian variety) over a number field \(k\) is a finitely generated abelian group. In particular the rank of \(E(k)\) is finite. It is a fundamental question in arithmetic geometry whether this rank is bounded when \(E\) varies. This question is still open even in the case where one considers a fixed elliptic curves and all its quadratic twists. Recent work of many authors have shown that there are heuristics that indicated that the rank might indeed be bounded, see e.g. [\textit{J. Park} et al., J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 21, No. 9, 2859--2903 (2019; Zbl 1469.11173)] and [\textit{M. Bhargava} et al., Camb. J. Math. 3, No. 3, 275--321 (2015; Zbl 1329.14071)]. In the article under review the author shows how Lang's conjecture on error terms in Diophantine approximation implies the following conjecture of Honda for an elliptic curve \(E\) over a number field \(k\). Conjecture (Honda): There is a positive integer \(c = c(E,k)\) such that for every finite extension \(L/k\) we have \(\text{rank}\,E(L) \leq c \cdot [L : k]\). The main theorem of the paper under review shows that a weak form of a conjecture of Lang in the settings of error terms in Vojta's conjectures for curves, implies Honda's conjecture. The author's also shows that in the function field case, for isotrivial elliptic curves over a complex function field of a curve, Lang's conjecture holds, even in a stronger form. The article ends with interesting discussion on further problems.