English

Fermat near misses and the integral Hilbert Property

Number Theory 2025-12-15 v2 Algebraic Geometry

Abstract

We consider the Diophantine equation x4+y4w2=nx^4 + y^4 - w^2 = n for nZn \in \mathbb{Z}, which is related to near misses for the quartic case of Fermat's Last Theorem. For certain nn we show that the set of solutions is infinite, or more generally not thin. Our approach is via the geometry of del Pezzo surfaces of degree 22, and we prove a more general result on non-thinness of integral points on double conic bundle surfaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.17456,
  title  = {Fermat near misses and the integral Hilbert Property},
  author = {Jessica Alessandrì and Daniel Loughran},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.17456},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

24 pages. Minor changes to introduction; improved Example 4.6 and proof of Lemma 5.4