On the Diophantine equation \(v(v + 1) = u(u + a)(u + 2a)\) (Q397028)

In this paper, the authors were interested in finding positive integers that can be simultaneously written as a product of two consecutive integers and as a product of three consecutive terms of an arithmetic progression with common difference \(a\). In other words, they were looking for integer solutions for the Diophantine equation \[ v(v + 1) = u(u + a)(u + 2a),\quad u,v,a \in \mathbb{N}. \] It is trivial to see that 0 has this property and the pairs \((u,v)\) giving 0 as an answer will be called trivial solutions. Mordell considered the case \(a = 1\) and proved that the only nontrivial solutions \((u, v)\) of the above equation were \((1,2)\), \((1,-3)\), \((5,14)\) and \((5,-15)\), i.e. 6 and 210 were the only nonzero integers that could be simultaneously written as a product of two consecutive integers and as a product of three consecutive integers. It is not an easy problem to solve the equation above in general for every \(a\), for its solutions depend on the properties of certain cubic fields. The authors considered the cases \(a=2\) and \(a=5\) and proved the following result: \textbf{Theorem.} Let \(a \in \{2,5\}\). The only nonzero integers that are simultaneously a product of two consecutive integers and a product of three consecutive terms of an arithmetic progression with common difference \(a\) are: \[ \begin{gathered} 4032,\;215760,\text{ and} 314160\text{ for} a = 2,\\ 42,\;1056,\;244125000,\;15438186750, \text{ and} 15813188250\text{ for} a = 5. \end{gathered} \] For other interesting results see the paper in details.