Zeckendorf representations with at most two terms to \(x\)-coordinates of Pell equations (Q2309648)

Let \( (F_n)_{n\ge 0} \) be the usual sequence of \textit{Fibonacci numbers} given by the linear recurence; \( F_0=0 \), \( F_1=1 \), and \( F_{n+2} = F_{n+1}+ F_n \) for all \( n\ge 0 \). The companion sequence, known as the sequence of \textit{Lucas numbers} \( (L_n)_{n\ge 0} \) is defined by the same recurrence but with different initial terms; \( L_0=2 \) and \( L_1=1 \). We say that a positive integer \( N \) has a \textit{Zeckendorf representation} with \( r \) terms if it has a unique representation as a sum of \( r \) non-consecutive Fibonacci numbers, that is, \(N=F_{k_1} + \cdots+ F_{k_r}\), where \(k_{i+1}-k_i \ge 2\) for all \(i=1, 2, \ldots, r-1\). Let \( d \) be a positive square-free integer. It is well-known that the \textit{Pell equation} \(X^2-dY^2= \pm 1\), has infinitely many positive integer solutions \( (X,Y) \). Putting \( (X_1, Y_1) \) for the smallest positive solution, all other solutions are of the form \( (X_\ell, Y_\ell) \), where \(X_\ell + Y_\ell \sqrt{d} = (X_1+ Y_1 \sqrt{d})^{\ell}\), for some \( \ell \in \mathbb{Z}^{+} \). Furthermore, the sequence \( (X_\ell)_{\ell\ge 1} \) is \textit{binary recurrent}. In fact the formula \[ X_\ell = \dfrac{(X_1+ Y_1 \sqrt{d})^{\ell}+(X_1- Y_1 \sqrt{d})^{\ell}}{2}, \] holds for all \( \ell \in \mathbb{Z}^{+} \). In the paper under review, the authors completely study the Pell equation \( X^2-dY^2=\pm 1 \), such that \( X_\ell \) has a Zeckendorf representation with at most two terms, for at least two values of \( \ell \). That is, they completely solve the Diophantine equation \[ X_\ell = F_m+ F_n \quad \text{with} \quad n-m\ge 2, \] in positive integers \( (\ell, m, n) \). Their main result is the following. Theorem 1. For each positive square-free integer \( d \), there is at most one positive integer \( \ell \) such that \( X_\ell \) has a Zeckendorf representation with at most two terms, except for \( d\in \{2,3,5,11,30\} \). For the exception \( d \) cases listed in Theorem 1, all the solutions \( (\ell, m, n) \) to the Diophantine equation in question are given in detail in the last section of the paper. The proof of Theorem 1 follows from a clever combination of techniques in number theory, the well-known properties of Pell equations, Fibonacci and Lucas sequences, the theory of linear forms in logarithms of algebraic numbers à la Baker, and the reduction techniques involving the theory of continued fractions, as well as the LLL algorithm. Computations are done with the help of \texttt{Mathematica}.