An exponential Diophantine equation involving the sum or difference of powers of two Pell numbers (Q2144628)

Let \( (P_n)_{n\ge 0} \) and \( (Q_n)_{n\ge 0} \) be the sequences of \textit{Pell numbers} and \textit{Pell-Lucas numbers}, respectively, defined by the linear recurrences: \begin{align*} P_0=0, ~ P_1=1,\text{ and } & P_{n+2}=2P_{n+1}+P_n\text{ for all }n\ge 0,\text{ and }\\ Q_0=2, ~ Q_1=2,\text{ and } & Q_{n+2}=2Q_{n+1}+Q_n\text{ for all }n\ge 0. \end{align*} Motivated by the famous identity linking Pell and Pell-Lucas numbers: \( P_{n+1}+P_{n-1}=Q_n \), the authors of the paper under review, prove the following theorem, which is the main result in the paper. Theorem 1. All the solutions of the Diophantine equations, \[ P_{n+1}^{x}\pm P_{n-1}^{x}=Q_m, \] in nonnegative integers \( n,m,x \), with \( n\ge 1 \) are \[ (n,m,x)\in \{(n,m,1), (0,1,1), (1,1,1), (0,n,0), (1,n,0)\}. \] Namely, \begin{align*} P_{n+1}+P_{n-1}=Q_m, ~P_2\pm P_0=Q_0=Q_1, ~P_{n+1}^{0}+P_{n-1}^{0}=Q_0=Q_1. \end{align*} The proof Theorem 1 follows from a clever combination of techniques in Diophantine number theory, the usual properties of the Pell and Pell-Lucas sequences, Baker's theory of nonzero linear forms in logarithms of algebraic numbers, as well as reduction techniques involving the theory of continued fractions. All computations are done with the aid of a computer program in \texttt{Maple}.