On the solutions of the Diophantine equation \(P_n \pm \frac{a(10^m -1)}{9}=k!\) (Q6044386)

Let \( \{P_n\}_{n\ge 0} \) be the sequence of Pell numbers defined by the linear recurrence relation \( P_0=0 \), \( P_1=1 \), and \( P_{n+1}=P_n+P_{n-1} \) for all \( n\ge 1 \). In the paper under review, the authors study the Diophantine equation \[ P_n\pm a\left(\dfrac{10^{m}-1}{9}\right)=k!,\tag{1} \] in non-negative integers \( (m,n,a,k) \), where \( a\in \{1,2,\ldots,9\} \). This research is motivated by the a previous result of the authors in [J. Number Theory 240, 593--610 (2022: Zbl 1498.11106)]. Their main result is the following. Theorem 1. \begin{itemize} \item[(1)] The only solutions \( (m,n,a,k) \) of the Diophantine equation (1) with \( n,m\ge 1 \) and the sign \( - \) are: \begin{align*} (1,2,1,1), (1,3,4,1), (1,3,3,2), (1,4,6,3), (1,5,5,4), (2,4,1,1). \end{align*} \item[(2)] The only solutions \( (m,n,a,k) \) of the Diophantine equation (1) with \( n,m\ge 1 \) and the sign \( + \) are: \begin{align*} (1,1,1,2), (1,3,1,3), (1,2,4,3), (1,1,5,3), (2,2,2,4). \end{align*} \end{itemize} To prove Theorem 1, the authors use a clever combination of techniques in Diophantine number theory, the usual properties of the Pell sequence, Baker's method on linear forms in complex and \( p \)-adic logarithms, and the reduction techniques involving the theory of continued fractions. All computations are done with the aid of a simple computer program in \texttt{Mathematica}.