On a Fermat-type Diophantine equation (Q1971699): Difference between revisions

The equation mentioned in the title is (*) \(x^p+y^p=pcz^p\), where \(p\) is a prime \(>3\) and \(c\) is an integer whose prime factors are of the form \(kp-1\), \((k,p)=1\). Equations of this type, with the coefficient \(pc\) replaced by integers satisfying various conditions, have been the subject of several studies, mainly in the case that \(x,y,z\) are prime to \(p\). The present author does not make this restriction. Working in the \(p\)th cyclotomic field \(\mathbb{Q}(\zeta)\), he first assumes that \(p\) is regular and extends the classical proof for the non-solvability of the ordinary Fermat equation to this modified equation. Let \(C_p\) be the Sylow \(p\)-group of the ideal class group of \(\mathbb{Q}(\zeta)\) and denote by \(C_p^{(i)}\) the eigenspace of \(C_p\) corresponding to the \(i\)th power of the Teichmüller character (\(i=3,4,\dots,p-3\)). The author's main result concerns the case that \(p\) is irregular and divides the Bernoulli number \(B_{p-3}\). Let \(q\) be a prime \(\equiv 1\pmod p\) satisfying the condition that there is a prime ideal in \(\mathbb{Q}(\zeta)\) over \(q\) whose ideal class generates \(C_p^{(3)}\). There are infinitely many such primes \(q\). The result states that if (*) has a non-trivial solution \(x,y,z\), then \(q\) does not divide the number \(pcz^p/(x+y)\). Some extensions of this result are also discussed.