The Diophantine equations \(P_n^x+P_{n+1}^y=P_m^x\) or \(P_n^y+P_{n+1}^x=P_m^x\) (Q6042183)

Let \( (P_n)_{n\ge 0} \) be the Pell sequence defined by the binary recurrence relation: \( P_0=0 \), \( P_1=1 \), and \( P_{n+2}=2P_{n+1}+P_n \) for all \( n\ge 0 \). In the paper under review, the authors prove the following theorem, which is the main result in the paper. \textbf{Theorem 1.} The only solution in positive integers \( (n,m,x,y) \) of either the equations \[ P_n^{x}+P_{n+1}^{y}=P_m^{x}\text{ or }P_n^{y}+P_{n+1}^{x}=P_m^{x}, \] is \( (n,m,x,y)=(1,3,1,2) \), for which \( 1+2^2=5=P_3 \). The proof of Theorem 1 follows from a clever combination of techniques in Diophantine number theory, the usual properties of the Pell sequence, Carmichael's theorem on primitive divisors for Lucas sequences, Baker's theory for nonzero lower bounds for linear forms in logarithms of algebraic numbers, both complex and \(p\)-adic, reduction techniques involving the theory of continued fractions, as well as the LLL algorithm. All computations are done with the aid of a computer program in \texttt{Mathematica}.