Power values of sums of certain products of consecutive integers and related results (Q1634430)

Let \(n\ge 3\) and denote by \(A_n\) the set of all integer vectors \((a_1,\ldots,a_k)\) such that \(n>a_k>a_{k-1}>\cdots>a_1\ge 0\). Put \(p_m(x)=\prod_{j=0}^m (x+j)\). The authors look at the integer solutions \((x,y)\) of the Diophantine equation \[ y^m=p_n(x)+\sum_{i=1}^k p_{a_i}(x):=g_T(x) \] for \(m\ge 2,~n\ge 2\) and \(T:=(a_1,\ldots,a_k)\in A_n\). They show that if \(n\ge 2\) and \(a_1\ge 2\), then the above equation has only finitely many solutions. For the proof, they note that since \(p_k(x)\mid p_\ell(x)\) holds whenever \(k\le \ell\), it follows that \(g_T(x)\) is divisible by \(p_{a_1}(x)\), a polynomial with \(a_1+1\) simple roots which remain simple roots of the polynomial \(g_T(x)\), so they can apply classical theorems of Brindza and Tijdeman to deduce finiteness of the number of integer solutions. They also look at rational solutions \((x,y)\) to the equation \(y^2=g_T(x)\) for all \(T\in A_n\) and \(n\le 4\). These equations lead to curves of genus \(0,~1,~2\). The authors succeed in describing all the rational solutions for the genus \(0\) cases, finding all the integral points for the genus \(1\) and even for the genus \(2\) cases (two curves of genus \(2\)) as they get lucky and the Jacobians of these curves have ranks \(1\) so they can apply Chabauty's method. The authors propose a conjecture concerning the rational points on the corresponding curves for \(T\in A_5\). Finally, for \(n\ge 3\) odd, \(g_T(x)\) is monic of even degree so the integral solutions of the equation \(y^2=g_T(x)\) can be found by Runge's method. The authors carry out these calculations for all \(n\in \{5,7,9,11,13\}\). This nice paper abounds with conjectures, and open problems which will stimulate further research.