On a question of Erdős and Graham (Q5920234)

In 1975, \textit{P. Erdős} and \textit{J. L. Selfridge} [ Ill. J. Math. 19, 292--301 (1975; Zbl 0295.10017)] proved that the product of consecutive integers is never a power. This sparked off a number of conjectures in which the role of consecutive integers is played by disjoint blocks of consecutive integers. As noted by \textit{M.~Ulas} in 2005 [Enseign. Math. (2) 51, No. 3--4, 331--334 (2005; Zbl 1112.11015 )], in this general situation, the analogous theorem cannot hold unconditionally. In the present paper, the authors give strong supportance to Ulas's observation, in the sense that they consider the product of a fixed number of disjoint blocks of consecutive integers and manage to make it a perfect square infinitely many times. In more concrete terms, the authors consider the equation \[ \prod_{i=1}^{j}\prod_{l=0}^{k_i-1}(x_i+l)=y^2, \] where \(j>1\) is a fixed integer, \((k_1,\ldots,k_j)\) is a fixed \(j\)-tuple of positive integers and the variables \(x_1,\ldots,x_j\) obey to the rule: if \(x_s<x_t\) then \(x_s+k_s\leq x_t\). Using only elementary tools, they prove that the following are (separately) sufficient conditions for the existence of infinitely many solutions to the above equation: (1) \(k_1=2\). (2) \(k_1=k_2=3\). (3) \(j\geq 3\) and \(k_i=4\) for every \(i\).