On certain homogeneous diophantine equations of degree n(n-1) (Q1825227)

The main theorem of this paper reads as follows. Let a, s, n, A be rational integers satisfying the conditions: (1) a is square-free, \(| a| \neq 1\); (2) \(s\geq 1\), \(n\geq 3\), \(s\leq 2(n-1)\), \(A\neq 0\); and (3) \((n,asA)=((n-1)a,A)=1\). Let \(B^ 2\) denote the largest square dividing A and write \(A=A_ 0B^ 2\). If there is no algebraic number field of degree n with discriminant \(\pm a^{n-1}A_ 0\), then the diophantine equation \[ (*)\quad a^ s(n-1)^{n-1} x^{n(n-1)}+n^ n y^{n(n- 1)}=Az^{n(n-1)} \] admits only the trivial solution \(x=y=z=0\). In particular, if \(| a| =2, 3\) or 5, and if \(A_ 0\) satisfies the inequality \[ | A_ 0| <(1/| a|^{n-1})(\pi /4)^ n(n^ n/n!)^ 2, \] then the equation (*) has no nontrivial integer solutions x, y, z. The proof makes use of a previous result of the author [J. Reine Angew. Math. 278/279, 137-144 (1975; Zbl 0312.12003)] and Minkowski's inequality for the discriminant of an algebraic number field.