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Results of Brocard-Ramanujan problem on diophantine equation $n!+1=m^2$

Number Theory 2026-02-06 v2

Abstract

The Brocard-Ramanujan problem pertaining to the diophantine equation n!+1=m2n!+1=m^2, a famously unsolved problem, deals with finding the integer solutions to the equation. Nobody has discovered any new solution of the problem beyond n=4, 5n=4,~5 and 77 although many of us have tried it. Bruce Berndt and William Galway \cite{Berndt} had not found any new solution in 2000 by extensive computer search for a solution with nn up to 10910^9. The purpose of this study is to show that the solutions should satisfy some necessary and/or sufficient conditions. If n!=k+ϵ, n>1, 0<ϵ<1\sqrt{n!}=k+\epsilon,~n>1,~0<\epsilon<1; then it has solution if and only if n!=k(k+2)n!=k(k+2) and ϵ, k\epsilon,~k are strictly monotonic increasing. It has only finitely many solutions which is not based on any conjecture or previous research on the Brocard-Ramanujan problem. For the new solution of Brocard-Ramanujan problem (n105n\ge 10^5), the value of ϵ\epsilon should be more than 0.9999059150.999 \cdots 905915 (digit 0 is coming after 228287 numbers of 9 digit, which takes more than 66 pages in (LibreOffice Writer) indicating almost impossibility of new solution. If we consider n109n\geq 10^9, I am unable to calculate the said numbers of 9 digit in the value of ϵ\epsilon in my personal laptop (with 8GB Ram) using MATHEMATICA 8. Finally, it has been claimed to discover that the problem has no further solution.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2004.09256,
  title  = {Results of Brocard-Ramanujan problem on diophantine equation $n!+1=m^2$},
  author = {Somnath Maiti},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.09256},
  year   = {2026}
}

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28 pages