Markoff-Rosenberger triples and generalized Lucas sequences (Q2166167)

The authors study the Markoff-Rosenberger equation \[ax^2 + by^2+cz^2=dxyz\] with pairwise coprime \(a\), \(b\), \(c\) such that \(a\), \(b\), \(c\mid d\). \textit{G. Rosenberger} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 305, 122--125 (1979, Zbl 0392.10018)] showed that (up to trivial permutations of \(a\), \(b\), \(c\)) there are only non-trivial integer solutions if \((a, b, c, d)\in\{(1,1,1,1), (1, 1, 1,3), (1, 1, 2, 2), (1, 1, 2,4), (1, 1, 5, 5), (1,2,3,6)\}\).\par Let \(P\) and \(Q\) be integers with \(0<D=P^2-4Q\), \(P>2\) and \(-P-1\le Q\le P-1\) and consider the Lucas numbers of the first and second kind defined by \(U_0=0\), \(U_1=1\), \(U_n=PU_{n-1}-QU_{n-2}\) for \(n\ge 2\) and \(V_0=2\), \(V_1=P\), \(V_n=PV_{n-1}-QV_{n-2}\) for \(n\ge 2\), respectively. The authors study the Markoff-Rosenberger equation where \(x=U_i\), \(y=U_j\) and \(z=U_k\) (or \(x=V_i\), \(y=V_j\), and \(z=V_k\)) for suitable indices \(i\), \(j\), \(k\) and show an upper bound for the minimum of \(i\), \(j\), \(k\) (under suitable assumptions).\par The result is applied to concrete equations such as balancing numbers and Jacobsthal numbers.