A Lucas-Lehmer approach to generalised Lebesgue-Ramanujan-Nagell equations (Q2052846)

The main result of the paper under review is the following, which is Theorem 1 in the paper. Assume that \(C_1\), \(C_2\) are coprime positive integers with \(C_1\) squarefree and \(C_1C_2\not\equiv 7\pmod 8\). Write \(C_1C_2=cd^2\), where \(c\) is squarefree. Assume that the Diophantine equation \[ C_1x^2+C_2=y^p \] has a solution with \(p\) an odd prime in positive integers \((x,y)\) such that \(\gcd(C_1x^2,C_2,y^p)=1\). Then either \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] \(p\le 5\), or \item[(ii)] \(p=7\) and \(y=3,5,9\), or \item[(iii)] \(p\) divides the class number of \({\mathbb Q}({\sqrt{-c}})\), or \item[(iv)] \(p\) divides \(q-(-c|q)\) for some prime \(q\mid d\) and \(q\nmid 2c\), where \((-c|q)\) is the Legendre symbol. \end{itemize} The proof uses the classification theorem of \textit{Yu. Bilu} et al. [J. Reine Angew. Math. 539, 75--122 (2001; Zbl 0995.11010)] of members of Lucas sequences with complex conjugated roots which have no primitive divisors. The author also solves all the above equations for \((C_1,C_2)\) in the range \(2\le C_1\le 10\) and \(1\le C_2\le 80\) subject to the above assumptions namely that \(C_1, C_2\) are coprime, \(C_1\) is squarefree, \(C_1C_2\not\equiv 7\pmod 8\) and the solution \((x,y)\) satisfies \(\gcd(C_1x^2,C_2,y^p)=1\). She additionally also allows \(p\) to be equal to \(4\). For this computation, the author uses Magma to solve the corresponding Thue equations once a list of possible candidates for \(p\) has been obtained from (i)--(iv) above. There are \(42\) such solutions.