English

The Diophantine problem for systems of algebraic equations with exponents

Number Theory 2023-03-24 v2

Abstract

Consider the equation q1αx1++qkαxk=qq_1\alpha^{x_1}+\dots+q_k\alpha^{x_k} = q, with constants αQ{0,1}\alpha \in \overline{\mathbb{Q}} \setminus \{0,1\}, q1,,qk,qQq_1,\ldots,q_k,q\in\overline{\mathbb{Q}} and unknowns x1,,xkx_1,\ldots,x_k, referred to in this paper as an \emph{algebraic equation with exponents}. We prove that the problem to decide if a given equation has an integer solution is NP\textbf{NP}-complete, and that the same holds for systems of equations (whether α\alpha is fixed or given as part of the input). Furthermore, we describe the set of all solutions for a given system of algebraic equations with exponents and prove that it is semilinear.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2210.00086,
  title  = {The Diophantine problem for systems of algebraic equations with exponents},
  author = {Richard Mandel and Alexander Ushakov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.00086},
  year   = {2023}
}