TITLE: Specific Elliptic Curves: Rank
QUESTION [10 upvotes]: Here's a challenge for elliptic curve descenders/programmers.  It seems no public software or public tables can determine if the rank is zero for the following curves (over rational x,y):
 y^2 = x^3 - 9122*x + 106889
 y^2 = x^3 - x^2 - 42144*x + 66420
 y^2 = x^3 - x^2 - 168615*x + 21827700
 y^2 = x^3 - 210386*x + 32627329

Can anybody definitely say if any of their ranks are zero?
By the way, these arose from Heronian triangles for a given base and height, so there are equivalent quartic forms which might be easier to analyze...for example, the rank of the first curve above is zero iff there are no rational s,t solutions to this equation:
 ( s^2 - t^2 )^2   =   25*( 2*( s^2 + t^2 ) - 509 )

Also, I have tried both Magma and Sage.  Sage seems to be better at determining the rank in about 20% of similar cases.  For example, "y^2 = x^3 + x^2 - 58055*x + 4135350" has rank 0 according to Sage, but Magma only bounds the rank from 0 to 2 (limited to one minute).  Anyway, these 4 cases are unsolved.

REPLY [21 votes]: Bob: although you say that Magma disagrees with my tables, none of your examples actually shows this.  You only show that using the most obvious Magma command cannot prove that the rank is zero.  As has been pointed out, one can prove that the ranks are zero by computing the analytic ranks and applying certain Theorems.  Or, you just have to go beyond 2-descent.  The reason why 2-descent is insufficient for these curves is that both the curve and the 2-isogenous curve have Sha of order4.  But Magma can also do 3- and 4-descent!  It just does not use them automatically.  A 3-descent should be able to show that the rank is 0, by computing that the 3-Selmer group is trivial.  I say "should" because the 3-descent algorithm (developed and implemented by me with Tom Fisher, Michael Stoll, Cathy O'Neil and Denis Simon) involves working in the 3-division field and so can be slow.  (I am running ThreeDescent(E) on the first of your curves as I type).  Alternatively you can get the everywhere locally soluble 2-coverings in Magma and then apply FourDescent() to those.
So it is not true that existing descent techniques are insufficient for these curves, but the tools available need to be used with some understanding of how they work