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

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