Equal sums of sixth powers and quadratic line complexes (Q2477977)

The Diophantine equation \(x^6+y^6+z^6=u^6+v^6+w^6\) is well-studied. \textit{A. Bremner} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 43, 544--581 (1981; Zbl 0414.14026)] showed that many of the solutions satisfy three additional degree 2 polynomial equations. In geometric terms the sextic defines a fourfold \(V_4\) and three additional degree 2 equations determine a \(K3\)-surface \(K_B\). Bremner also showed that \(\mathrm{NS}(V_B,\mathbb Q(i))\), the Néron-Severi group over \(\mathbb Q(i)\), has rank 19. He left the determination of the geometric Néron-Severi group \(\mathrm{NS}(V_B,\mathbb C)\) as a problem. In this paper the surface \(K_B\) is studied. One of the results of this paper is that \(K_B\) is the minimal desingularization of the Kummer surface of the Jacobian \(J(C)\) of \[ y^2=(x^2+1)(x^2+2x+5)(x^2-2x+5). \] Moreover, it is shown that \(J(C)\) is isogenous to \(E\times E\), where \(E\) is the elliptic curve \(y^2=x(x^2+4x+20)\). This final observation is used to show that the Néron-Severi group \(\mathrm{NS}(E,\mathbb C)\) has rank 19.