Simultaneous twists of elliptic curves and the Hasse principle for certain K3 surfaces
By: Vivek Pal
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2016
Place of publication: [New York, N.Y.?]
Language: eng
Description: In this thesis we unconditionally show that certain K3 surfaces satisfy the Hasse principle. Our method involves the 2-Selmer groups of simultaneous quadratic twists of two elliptic curves, only with places of good or additive reduction. More generally we prove that, given finitely many such elliptic curves defined over a number field (with rational 2-torsion and satisfying some mild conditions) there exists an explicit quadratic extension such that the quadratic twist of each elliptic curve has essential 2-Selmer rank one. Furthermore, given a 2-covering in each of the 2-Selmer groups, the quadratic extension above can be chosen so that the 2-Selmer group of the quadratic twist of each elliptic curve is generated by the given 2-covering and the image of the 2-torsion. Our approach to the Hasse Principle is outlined below and was introduced by Skorobogatov and Swinnerton-Dyer. We also generalize the result proved in their paper. If each elliptic curve has a distinct multiplicative place of bad reduction, then we find a quadratic extension such that the quadratic twist of each elliptic curve has essential 2-Selmer rank one.

Furthermore, given a 2-covering in each of the 2-Selmer groups, the quadratic extension above can be chosen so that the 2-Selmer group of the quadratic twist of each elliptic curve is generated by the given 2-covering and the image of the 2-torsion. If we further assume the finiteness of the Shafarevich-Tate groups (of the twisted elliptic curves) then each elliptic curve has Mordell-Weil rank one. If K = Q, then under the above assumptions the analytic rank of each elliptic curves is one. Furthermore, with the assumption on the Shafarevich-Tate group (and K = Q), we describe a single quadratic twist such that each elliptic curve has analytic rank zero and Mordell-Weil rank zero, again under some mild assumptions.
Notes: Department: Mathematics.

Thesis advisor: Wei Zhang.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Columbia University, 2016.