Number of solutions to $a^x+b^y=c^z$ with $\gcd(a,b)>1$
Abstract
We show that there are at most two solutions in positive integers to the equation for positive integers , , and all greater than one, with just one exceptional case when , and just one exceptional infinite family of cases when (two solutions and are considered the same solution if ). The case in which has been handled in a series of successive results by Scott and Styer, Hu and Le, and Miyazaki and Pink, who showed that there are at most two solutions, excepting , which gives three solutions. So here we treat the case , showing that in this case there are at most two solutions, excepting with , which gives an infinite number of solutions. This generalizes work of Bennett, who proved, for both and , there are at most two solutions to the equation , and conjectured there are exactly eleven giving two solutions to this equation (assuming and are not perfect powers). For both and , there are an infinite number of giving two solutions to the title equation, which are described in detail in this and a cited previous paper. In a further result, in which we no longer say that two solutions and are considered the same solution if , we list all cases with more than two solutions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2401.04197,
title = {Number of solutions to $a^x+b^y=c^z$ with $\gcd(a,b)>1$},
author = {Reese Scott and Robert Styer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.04197},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
Added significant material about the infinite families