Functional equations for Mahler measures of genus-one curves

Abstract

In this paper we will establish functional equations for Mahler measures of families of genus-one two-variable polynomials. These families were previously studied by Beauville, and their Mahler measures were considered by Boyd, Rodriguez-Villegas, Bertin, Zagier, and Stienstra. Our functional equations allow us to prove identities between Mahler measures that were conjectured by Boyd. As a corollary, we also establish some new transformations for hypergeometric functions.