Fibonacci and Lucas numbers as products of three repdigits in base \(g\) (Q6183471)

Let \( \{F_n\}_{n\ge 0} \) be the Fibonacci sequence given by \( F_{n+2}=F_{n+1}+F_n \) with the initial values \( F_0=0 \) and \( F_1=1 \), and let \( \{L_n\}_{n\ge 0} \) be the Lucas sequence given by \( L_{n+2}=L_{n+1}+L_n \), where \( L_0=2 \) and \( L_1=1 \). Let \(g \ge 2\) be an integer. A positive integer \(N\) is called a \textit{repdigit in base \(g\)} or simply a \textit{\(g\)-repdigit} if all of the digits in its base \(g\) expansion are equal. Indeed, \(N\) is of the form \begin{align*} N=d\left(\dfrac{g^{m}-1}{g-1}\right), \quad \text{for}~~m\ge 1, ~~d\in \{1,2,\ldots, g-1\}. \end{align*} Taking \(g = 10\), the positive integer \(N\) is simply called \textit{repdigit}. In the paper under review, the authors study Fibonacci and Lucas numbers which are products of three repdigits in base \( g \). In other words, they study the Diophantine equations \[ F_k=d_1\left(\dfrac{g^{\ell}-1}{g-1}\right)\cdot d_2\left(\dfrac{g^{m}-1}{g-1}\right)\cdot d_3\left(\dfrac{g^{n}-1}{g-1}\right),\tag{1} \] and \[ L_k=d_1\left(\dfrac{g^{\ell}-1}{g-1}\right)\cdot d_2\left(\dfrac{g^{m}-1}{g-1}\right)\cdot d_3\left(\dfrac{g^{n}-1}{g-1}\right),\tag{2} \] where \( d_!,d_2,d_3,k,\ell, m,n \) are positive integers such that \[ 1\le d_1,d_2,d_3\le g-1 \quad \text{and} \quad g\ge 2 \quad \text{with} \quad n\ge 1, \quad \ell\le m\le n. \tag{3} \] Their main result is the following. Theorem 1. Let \( g\ge 2 \) be an integer. Then, the Diophantine equations (1) and (2) have only finitely many solutions in integers \( k,d_1,d_2,d_3, g,\ell, m,n \) such that (3) holds. Namely, we have \begin{align*} \ell \le m\le n<1.08\times 10^{48}\log^{9}g \quad \text{and} \quad k<1.08\times 10^{49}\log^{10}g. \end{align*} As an application of Theorem 1 in the case \( g=10 \), the authors also prove the following results. Theorem 2. The only Fibonacci numbers which are products of three repdigits are \(1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 21, 55,\) and \(144\). Theorem 3. The only Lucas numbers which are products of three repdigits are \(1, 3, 4, 7, 11,\) and \(18\). To prove Theorem 1, Theorem 2 and Theorem 3, the authors use a clever combination of techniques in Diophantine number theory, the usual properties of Fibonacci and Lucas sequences, Baker's theory for non-zero lower bounds for linear forms in logarithms of algebraic numbers, and the reduction techniques involving the theory of continued fractions. All computations are done with the aid of a computer program in \texttt{Mathematica}.