Coincidence between \(k\)-Fibonacci numbers and products of two Fermat numbers (Q2145175)

Let \( k\ge 2 \) be a fixed integer. The sequence of \( k \)-Fibonacci numbers \( (F_n^{(k)})_{n\ge 2-k} \) is defined by the \( k \)-term linear recurrence: \begin{align*} F_n^{(k)}=F_{n-1}^{(k)}+F_{n-2}^{(k)}+ \cdots + F_{n-k}^{(k)}, \text{ for all }n\ge 2, \end{align*} with the initial conditions: \begin{align*} F_{-(k-2)}^{(k)}=F_{-(k-3)}^{(k)}=\cdots = F_0^{(k)}=0\text{ and } F_1^{(k)}=1. \end{align*} When \( k=2 \), this sequence coincides with the classical Fibonacci sequence \( (F_n)_{n\ge 0} \) and when \( k=3 \), it coincides with the Tribonacci sequence \( (T_n)_{n\ge 0} \). In the paper under review, the authors prove the following theorem, which is the main result in the paper. Theorem 1. All solutions of the Diophantine equation \begin{align*} F_n^{(k)}=(2^{a}+1)(2^{b}+1), \end{align*} in positive integers \( (n,k,a,b) \) with \( k\ge 2 \) and \( a\le b \) are \begin{align*} F_6^{(4)}=(2^{1}+1)(2^{2}+1) \quad \text{and} \quad F_9^{(3)}=(2^{3}+1)^2. \end{align*} So, \( F_6^{(4)} :=15\) is the only \( k \)-Fibonacci numbers which is a product of two Fermat numbers. The proof of Theorem 1 follows from a clever combination of techniques in number theory, the usual properties of \( k \)-Fibonacci numbers and Fermat numbers, Baker's theory of nonzero linear forms in logarithms of algebraic numbers, and the reduction techniques involving the theory of continued fractions. All computations are carefully done with the help of a computer program in \texttt{Mathematica}.