English

At most one solution to $a^x + b^y = c^z$ for some ranges of $a$, $b$, $c$

Number Theory 2024-02-08 v1

Abstract

We consider the number of solutions in positive integers (x,y,z)(x,y,z) for the purely exponential Diophantine equation ax+by=cza^x+b^y =c^z (with gcd(a,b)=1\gcd(a,b)=1). Apart from a list of known exceptions, a conjecture published in 2016 claims that this equation has at most one solution in positive integers xx, yy, and zz. We show that this is true for some ranges of aa, bb, cc, for instance, when 1<a,b<36001 < a,b < 3600 and c<1010c<10^{10}. The conjecture also holds for small pairs (a,b)(a,b) independent of cc, where 2a,b102 \le a,b \le 10 with gcd(a,b)=1\gcd(a,b)=1. We show that the Pillai equation axby=r>0a^x - b^y = r > 0 has at most one solution (with a known list of exceptions) when 2a,b36002 \le a,b \le 3600. Finally, the primitive case of the Je\'smanowicz conjecture holds when a106a \le 10^6 or when b106b \le 10^6. This work highlights the power of some ideas of Miyazaki and Pink and the usefulness of a theorem by Scott.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.04428,
  title  = {At most one solution to $a^x + b^y = c^z$ for some ranges of $a$, $b$, $c$},
  author = {Robert Styer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.04428},
  year   = {2024}
}