An elementary solution of the Diophantine equation \(x^3=y^2-1\) (Q1428817)

Euler proved that the equation \(x^{3} = y^{2} - 1\) has no other solutions except \[ 2^{3} = 3^{2}-1, \] by using Fermat's descent method on an elliptic curve. This was, along with Ben Gershon's proof that \(3^{m} - 2^{n} = 1\) admits exactly (and only) the same nontrivial solution, the only special case known when Catalan formulated his famous conjecture. The paper under review starts with an overview of various approaches to the equation under consideration and gives a new proof based on a long case distinction. The hardest cases lead to some special cases of Pell's equation, as one would expect from Chao Ko's proof that \(x^{2}-y^{q}=1\) admits no nontrivial solution except (1). Note that Chao Ko's proof holds for \(q > 3\) and thus the contribution of the present author is to provide a new proof of Euler's result, which is independent yet similar in flavor with Ko's proof.