A note on the use of Rédei polynomials for solving the polynomial Pell equation and its generalization to higher degrees (Q829853)

The polynomial Pell equation is \(P^{2}-DQ^{2}=1\), where \(D\) is a given integer polynomial and the solutions \((P, Q)\) are integer polynomials. Work on the solutions of such equations started with a paper of \textit{M.B. Nathanson} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 56, 89--92 (1976; Zbl 0327.10021)], for \(D=x^{2}+d\). This result answered a question of S. Chowla. Here the author gives a generalization of Nathanson's result, replacing \(x\) by any \(f(x) \in {\mathbb Z}[x]\), characterizing precisely the solutions and when they exist. To state the result, we define the Rédei polynomials \(D_{n}(\alpha,z)\) and \(N_{n}(\alpha,z)\). When \(\alpha, z \in {\mathbb Z}\) and \(\alpha\) is not a square, we define \[ \left( \sqrt{\alpha}+z \right)^{n}=D_{n}(\alpha,z)\sqrt{a}+N_{n}(\alpha,z). \] This leads to closed form expressions as polynomials in \(\alpha\) and \(z\) that can be applied to more general \(\alpha\) and \(z\) (for example, \(\alpha, z \in {\mathbb Z}[x]\) as here). The author shows that \((P,Q)=\left( N_{n}(x)/(-d)^{n/2}, D_{n}(x)/(-d)^{n/2} \right)\) is a solution for \(d=1, \pm 2\) when \(n\) is even and \(d=-1\) for any \(n\). This is Theorem~1. Theorem~2 states that there are no other solutions in \({\mathbb Z}[x]\) of these polynomial Pell equations. Going further in this direction, the author also asks (Question~1 on page~698) whether all the solutions of the polynomial Pell equation for any \(D(x) \in {\mathbb Z}[x]\) are the Rédei polynomials? Pell equations are a quadratic example of norm form equations. In Section~3, the author also considers polynomial versions of norm form equations of higher degree, raising the question of whether all integer polynomial solutions of certain such equations come from a suitable generalization of the Rédei polynomials.