On the elliptic logarithm method for elliptic diophantine equations: reflections and an improvement

Abstract

The elliptic logarithm method for the determination of all integral solutions of a given elliptic equation is discussed for equations with associated elliptic curve of moderately large rank. Major attention is given to the question of optimizing the choice of Mordell-Weil basis for the curves in question. A speculative argument suggests that for any curve of rank larger then 8 the calculations involved are unlikely to be feasible. The arguments are illustrated by examples of curves of rank 5, 6, 7, and 8, taken from the literature.