Rational points on $x^{3} + x^{2} y^{2} + y^{3} = k$

Abstract

We study the problem of determining, given an integer $k$, the rational solutions to $C_{k} : x^{3}z + x^{2} y^{2} + y^{3}z = kz^{4}$. For $k \ne 0$, the curve $C_{k}$ has genus $3$ and there are maps from $C_{k}$ to three elliptic curves $E_{1,k}$, $E_{2,k}$, $E_{3,k}$. We explicitly determine the rational points on $C_{k}$ under the assumption that one of these elliptic curves has rank zero. We discuss the challenges involved in extending our result to handle all $k \in \mathbb{Q}$.