Integers representable as differences of linear recurrence sequences

DOI10.1007/S40993-021-00252-2MaRDI QIDQ2020008zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Ingrid Vukusic, Daodao Yang, Volker Ziegler, Robert F. Tichy

Publication date 23 April 2021

Published in Research in Number Theory (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.00844

zbMATH Keywords

Diophantine equationsPillai's problemrecurrence sequence

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Fibonacci and Lucas numbers and polynomials and generalizations (11B39) Counting solutions of Diophantine equations (11D45) Exponential Diophantine equations (11D61)

Abstract: Let ${U_n}_{ngeq0}$ and ${V_m}_{mgeq0}$ be two linear recurrence sequences. We establish an asymptotic formula for the number of integers $c$ in the range $[-x,x]$ which can be represented as differences $U_n-V_m$. In particular, the density of such integers is $0$.

Review text

Pillai's Conjecture is an interesting problem in number theory. One can specialize this to an open problem as integers representable as differences of linear recurrence sequences. Let \(\{ U_n \}_{n \geq 0}\) and \(\{ V_m \}_{m \geq 0}\) be two linear recurrence sequences satisfying the dominant root condition with dominant roots \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) respectively. Then, in the paper under review, the authors find an asymptotic formula for the number of integers \(c\) in the range \([-x, x]\) which can be represented as differences \(U_n - V_n\). More precisely, assume the setting above and let \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are multiplicatively independent and with the properties \(| \alpha |>1 \) and \(|\beta|>1\). Define \[ S(x):= \{ c \in [-x,x] : c=U_n - V_n \text{for some} (n, m) \in \mathbb{N}^2 \} \]. Then the authors are interested in understanding the asymptotic behaviour of \(S(x)\) and find \[ S(x) \sim \frac{(\log x)^2}{\log |\alpha| \log |\beta| } \] as \(x \to \infty\). More precisely, \[ \frac{(\log x)^2}{\log |\alpha| \log |\beta| } + O(\log x . \log \log x) \leq S(x) \leq \frac{(\log x)^2}{\log |\alpha| \log |\beta| } + O(\log x (\log \log x)^2 \] for \(x\) large enough. The implied constants are effective. Finally, they show that the density of such integers is \(0\). The proofs are based on effective usage of the linear forms in logarithms to bound for the number of solutions \((n, m)\) to the Diophantine inequality \(|U_n - V_m | \leq x\) and estimations on heights. Finally they propose three open interesting problems.

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Cites work

• An explicit lower bound for a homogeneous rational linear form in logarithms of algebraic numbers. II
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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3000755 (Why is no real title available?)
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• On a variant of Pillai's problem. II.
• On a variant of Pillai’s problem
• On Pillai's problem with tribonacci numbers and powers of 2
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Cited in

(3)

• On a variant of Pillai's problem with transcendental numbers
• On the difference of perfect powers and sums of terms of linear recurrences
• On Pillai’s problem with X-coordinates of Pell equations and powers of 2 II

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