Diophantine equations with Appell sequences (Q484583)

For \(n \in\mathbb{N}\cup \{0\}\), let \(P_n(x)\) be a polynomial with rational coefficients and with \(\deg P_n(x) = n\). Further, let \(P_0(x)\) be a non-zero constant. The sequence \(\{P_n (x)\}_{n\geq 0}\) is called an Appell sequence if \[ P^\prime_n(x) = n\cdot P_{n-1}(x)\quad \text{for all } n \in\mathbb{N}. \] There are several well-known examples of Appell sequences, such as the Bernoulli polynomials \(B_n(x)\), the Euler polynomials \(E_n(x)\), and the Hermite polynomials \(H_n(x)\). We say that an Appell sequence \(\{P_n(x)\}_{n\geq 0}\) is of special type if \(P_n(x)\) is indecomposable over \(\mathbb{C}\) for all odd \(n\), and for even \(n\), every nontrivial decomposition of \(P_n(x)\) is equivalent to a decomposition of the form \[ P_n(x)=\widehat{P}_{n/2}(\left(x-1/2\right)^2), \] with an indecomposable polynomial \(\widehat{P}_{n/2}(x)\) over \(\mathbb{C}\) of degree \(n/2\). Clearly, the polynomials \(\{B_n(x)\}_{n\geq 0}\) and \(\{E_n(x)\}_{n\geq 0}\) are of special type. In this paper the authors study the Diophantine equation \[ P_n(x) = g(y) \text{ in integers } x,\;y, \] where \(P_n(x)\) is from an Appell sequence of special type and \(g(x) \in \mathbb{Q}[x]\), \(\deg g(x) \geq 3\). For technical reasons, they restrict themselves to Appell sequences \(\{P_n(x)\}_{n\geq 0}\) for which \[ \frac{3P_2(-c_1/c_0)^2 - 2c_0 P_4(-c_1/c_0)}{3P_2(-c_1/c_0)^2 - c_0 P_4(-c_1/c_0)} \] is not a positive integer, where \(c_k:= P_k(0)\) \((k \geq 0)\). They prove the following. Let \(g(x) \in \mathbb{Q}[x]\) with \(\deg g(x) \geq 3\), and suppose that \(\{P_n(x)\}_{n\geq 0}\) is an Appell sequence of special type with the property mentioned above. Then for \(n\geq 7\), the equation above has only finitely many integer solutions \(x\), \(y\), apart from six cases explicitly described in the paper. The authors prove this theorem by applying a general finiteness criterion of \textit{Y. Bilu} and \textit{R. F. Tichy} [Acta Arith. 95, No. 3, 261--288 (2000; Zbl 0958.11049)], that is, this result is ineffective.