A note on Chudnovsky's Fuchsian equations

We show that four exceptional Fuchsian equations, each determined by the four parabolic singularities, known as the Chudnovsky equations, are transformed into each other by algebraic transformations. We describe equivalence of these equations and their counterparts on tori. The latter are the Fuchsian equations on elliptic curves and their equivalence is characterized by transcendental transformations which are represented explicitly in terms of elliptic and theta functions.Comment: Final version; LaTeX, 27 pages, 1 table, no figure

Hilbert modular surfaces for square discriminants and elliptic subfields of genus 2 function fields

We compute explicit rational models for some Hilbert modular surfaces corresponding to square discriminants, by connecting them to moduli spaces of elliptic K3 surfaces. Since they parametrize decomposable principally polarized abelian surfaces, they are also moduli spaces for genus-2 curves covering elliptic curves via a map of fixed degree. We thereby extend classical work of Jacobi, Hermite, Bolza etc., and more recent work of Kuhn, Frey, Kani, Shaska, V\"olklein, Magaard and others, producing explicit families of reducible Jacobians. In particular, we produce a birational model for the moduli space of pairs (C,E) of a genus 2 curve C and elliptic curve E with a map of degree n from C to E, as well as a tautological family over the base, for 2 <= n <= 11. We also analyze the resulting models from the point of view of arithmetic geometry, and produce several interesting curves on them.Comment: 36 pages. Final versio

The sixth Painleve transcendent and uniformization of algebraic curves

We exhibit a remarkable connection between sixth equation of Painleve list and infinite families of explicitly uniformizable algebraic curves. Fuchsian equations, congruences for group transformations, differential calculus of functions and differentials on corresponding Riemann surfaces, Abelian integrals, analytic connections (generalizations of Chazy's equations), and other attributes of uniformization can be obtained for these curves. As byproducts of the theory, we establish relations between Picard-Hitchin's curves, hyperelliptic curves, punctured tori, Heun's equations, and the famous differential equation which Apery used to prove the irrationality of Riemann's zeta(3).Comment: Final version. Numerous improvements; English, 49 pages, 1 table, no figures, LaTe

Density of rational points on del Pezzo surfaces of degree one

We state conditions under which the set S(k) of k-rational points on a del Pezzo surface S of degree 1 over an infinite field k of characteristic not equal to 2 or 3 is Zariski dense. For example, it suffices to require that the elliptic fibration over the projective line induced by the anticanonical map has a nodal fiber over a k-rational point. It also suffices to require the existence of a point in S(k) that does not lie on six exceptional curves of S and that has order 3 on its fiber of the elliptic fibration. This allows us to show that within a parameter space for del Pezzo surfaces of degree 1 over the field of real numbers, the set of surfaces S defined over the field Q of rational numbers for which the set S(Q) is Zariski dense, is dense with respect to the real analytic topology. We also include conditions that may be satisfied for every del Pezzo surface S and that can be verified with a finite computation for any del Pezzo surface S that does satisfy them.Comment: 31 pages; the main results have not changed; the presentation has been improved; a magma file that checks all computations may be obtained from arXiv by downloading the source of this articl

Nonpersistence of resonant caustics in perturbed elliptic billiards

Caustics are curves with the property that a billiard trajectory, once tangent to it, stays tangent after every reflection at the boundary of the billiard table. When the billiard table is an ellipse, any nonsingular billiard trajectory has a caustic, which can be either a confocal ellipse or a confocal hyperbola. Resonant caustics ---the ones whose tangent trajectories are closed polygons--- are destroyed under generic perturbations of the billiard table. We prove that none of the resonant elliptical caustics persists under a large class of explicit perturbations of the original ellipse. This result follows from a standard Melnikov argument and the analysis of the complex singularities of certain elliptic functions.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure