On the Brocard-Ramanujan Diophantine equation \(n! + 1 = m^2\) (Q1567059)

It is unknown whether the Diophantine equation \(n!+1= m^2\) has only finitely many positive integer solutions \((n,m)\), although \textit{M. Overholt} [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 25, 104 (1993; Zbl 0805.11030)] showed that a weak form of Szpiro's conjecture implies that this is indeed so. In the paper under review, the authors report on some computations they have done which show that the above equation has no solutions in the range \(7< n\leq 10^9\). Of course, they did not compute \(n!+1\), but rather they showed that for any \(n\) in the above range, the Legendre symbol \(\binom {n!+1}{p}\) is \(-1\) for at least one of the first 40 prime numbers \(p\) after \(10^9\). They also performed computations for the equation \(n!+k= m^2\) in the range \(n\leq 10^5\) and \(k=s^2\) with \(2\leq s\leq 50\), and the largest solution found here is \(11!+ 18^2= 6318^2\).