Families of Painleve VI equations having a common solution

Abstract

We classify all functions satisfying non-trivial families of PVI equations. It turns out that, up to an Okamoto equivalence, there are exactly four families parameterized by affine planes or lines. Each affine space is generated by points of "geometric origin", associated either to deformations of elliptic surfaces with four singular fibers, or to deformations of three-sheeted covers of the projective line with branching locus consisting of four points.