The minimal resolution of the degree four cyclic cover of the plane branched along a GIT stable quartic is a $K3$ surface with a non symplectic action of $\Z_4$. In this paper we study the geometry of the one-dimensional family of $K3$ surfaces associated to the locus of plane quartics with five nodes.

We prove that the elliptic surface $y^2=x^3+2(t^8+14t^4+1)x+4t^2(t^8+6t^4+1)$ has geometric Mordell--Weil rank $15$. This completes a list of Kuwata, who gave explicit examples of elliptic $K3$-surfaces with geometric Mordell--Weil ranks $0,1,\dots, 14, 16, 17, 18$.

In this article we will show that there are infinitely many symmetric, integral $3 \times 3$ matrices, with zeros on the diagonal, whose eigenvalues are all integral. We will do this by proving that the rational points on a certain non-Kummer, singular K3 surface are dense. We will also compute the entire N\'eron--Severi group of this surface and find all low degree curves on it.

In this paper we describe six pencils of $K3$-surfaces which have large Picard number ($\rho=19,20$) and each contains precisely five special fibers: four have A-D-E singularities and one is non-reduced. In particular, we characterize these surfaces as cyclic coverings of some $K3$-surfaces described in a recent paper by Barth and the author. In many cases, using 3-divisible sets, resp., 2-divisible sets, of rational curves and lattice theory, we describe explicitly the Picard lattices.

Using weighted Delsarte surfaces, we give examples of $K3$ surfaces in positive characteristic whose formal Brauer groups have height equal to $5$, $8$ or $9$. These are among the four values of the height left open in the article of Yui \cite{Y}.

Let $V$ be an algebraic K3 surface defined over a number field $K$. Suppose $V$ has Picard number two and an infinite group of automorphisms $\mathcal{A} = \Aut(V/K)$. In this paper, we introduce the notion of a vector height $\mathbf{h} \colon V \to \Pic(V) \otimes \mathbb{R}$ and show the existence of a canonical vector height $\widehat{\mathbf{h}}$ with the following properties: \begin{gather*} \widehat{\mathbf{h}} (\sigma P) = \sigma_* \widehat{\mathbf{h}} (P) \\ h_D (P) = \widehat{\mathbf{h}} (P) \cdot D + O(1), \end{gather*} where $\sigma \in \mathcal{A}$, $\sigma_*$ is the pushforward of $\sigma$ (the pullback of $\sigma^{-1}$), and $h_D$ is a Weil height associated to the divisor $D$. The bounded function implied by the $O(1)$ does not depend on $P$. This allows us to attack some arithmetic problems. For example, we show that the number of rational points with bounded logarithmic height in an $\mathcal{A}$-orbit satisfies $$ N_{\mathcal{A}(P)} (t,D) = \# \{Q \in \mathcal{A}(P) : h_D (Q)
Categories:11G50, 14J28, 14G40, 14J50, 14G05