On the diophantine equation \(x^ 2-D=4p^ n\) (Q1199982): Difference between revisions

Let \(D\) be an odd positive integer, and \(p\) an odd prime not dividing \(D\). Further let \(N(D,p)\) denote the number of positive solutions \((x,n)\) of the diophantine equation \(x^ 2-D=4p^ n\). This equation has three solutions if \(D\) is of type I, that is, \(D=p^{2m_ 2}+p^{2m_ 1} - 2p^{m_ 2+m_ 1} -2p^{m_ 2} -2p^{m_ 1}+1\), \(m_ 1,m_ 2\in\mathbb{N}\), \(m_ 2>m_ 1\), or \(D\) is of type II, where \(D=(p^{4m}- 14p^{2m}+1)/4\), \(p=3\), \(m\in\mathbb{N}\). By a careful combination of elementary arithmetic lemmata with the known theorems on linear forms in logarithms by Baker, Mignotte, and Waldschmidt, the author is able to prove: (i) If \(D\) is of type I, then \(N(D,p)\leq 5\). (ii) If \(D\) is of type II, then \(N(D,p)\leq 4\). For a suitable \(Z_ 0\in\mathbb{N}\) (related to the least positive solution \(Z\) of \(X^ 2-DY^ 2=4p^ Z)\): (iii) If \(p^{Z_ 0}>D\), then \(N(D,p)\leq 3\), if \(p^{Z_ 0}\geq 200\), otherwise \(N(D,p)\leq 4\). (iv) If \(\max(D,p^{Z_ 0})\geq 10^{60}\), and \(D\) is not of type I or II, then \(N(D,p)\leq 3\).