On powerful integers expressible as sums of two coprime fourth powers (Q6072072): Difference between revisions

A \textit{powerful number} is a positive integer whose prime factorizations \(N = \prod_i p_i^{e_i}\) has each exponent \(e_i\geq 2\). In this paper, the equation \(x^4 + y^4 = N\), where \(x\), \(y\) are coprime integers and \(N\) a powerful number, is studied. First, it confirm the conjecture, made on MathOverflow (Question 191889) by the first-named author, by proving that the smallest powerful integer \(N = a^2b^3 > 1\) for which the previous equation has a solution is: \[ 17^3 \cdot 73993169^2 \cdot 338837713^2 = 427511122^4 + 1322049209^4, \] and that in fact this is the only solution up to \(3.6125 \cdot 10^{37}\). Secondly, an algorithm is presented based on the arithmetic of elliptic curves that can be used to quickly generate all such numbers up to any given bound. Using this algorithm, all solutions for small \(b\) values up to \(2^{-2/3} \exp(400)\) are found. Several suggestions for future research are given.