English

On Brocard's problem with Padovan and Perrin numbers

Number Theory 2026-06-26 v1

Abstract

The Padovan sequence {Pm}m0\{P_{m}\}_{m\ge 0} is a ternary recurrence sequence with companion polynomial X3X1X^{3}-X-1 and initial conditions P0=P1=P2=1P_{0}=P_{1}=P_{2}=1. The Perrin sequence {Rm}m0\{R_{m}\}_{m\ge 0} is defined by the same companion polynomial as the Padovan sequence, but has initial values R0=3R_{0}=3, R1=0R_{1}=0, and R2=2R_{2}=2. We solve the Brocard-Ramanujan equation n!+1=x2n!+1=x^{2}, where n!n! is the factorial of nn and xx is a Padovan number or a Perrin number. In both cases, we prove that (n,x)=(4,5)(n,x)=(4,5) is the only solution.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2606.28577,
  title  = {On Brocard's problem with Padovan and Perrin numbers},
  author = {Eric F. Bravo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.28577},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-22T20:14:17.815Z