Two \(S\)-unit equations with many solutions (Q877932)

For a finite set of primes \(S\), denote by \(N(S)\) the number of coprime integer triples \((a,b,c)\) such that \(a+b=c\) and \(abc\) is composed of primes from \(S\). In 1988, \textit{P. Erdős, C. L. Stewart} and \textit{R. Tijdeman} [Compos. Math. 66, No. 1, 37--56 (1988; Zbl 0639.10014)] proved the following: there are arbitrarily large finite sets of primes \(S\) such that \(N(S)\geq \exp((4-\varepsilon)\sqrt{s/\log s})\), where \(s:=\text{ Card}\, S\). In their proof, they used properties of the function \(\psi (x,y)\), which counts the number of integers \(\leq x\) composed of primes \(\leq y\). It is conjectured that a similar result should hold with \(N(S)\geq \exp(s^{(2/3)-\varepsilon})\). The authors prove that for every \(\beta\) with \(\beta <2-\sqrt{2}\approx 0.585\ldots\), there exist arbitrarily large sets of primes \(S\) such that \(N(S)\geq \exp(s^{\beta})\). The key idea is as follows. Let for the moment \(\beta ,\gamma\) be real numbers from \((0,1)\) and let \(y\) be a large real. Denote by \({\mathcal L}\) the set of positive square-free integers \(\ell\) which have exactly \([y^{\beta}]\) prime factors all of which lie in \([y/2,y]\), and denote by \({\mathcal M}\) the set of positive square-free integers \(m\) which have exactly \([\gamma y^{\beta}]\) prime factors which all lie in \([y/4,y/2]\). Combining some elementary combinatorics with the Prime Number Theorem, the authors show that there exists a positive integer \(v\) for which there are many triples \((\ell_1,\ell_2,m)\) with \(\ell_1,\ell_2\in{\mathcal L}, m\in{\mathcal M}\) and \(\ell_2=\ell_1+vm\). Choosing \(\beta , \gamma\) optimally, taking for \(S\) the set of primes in \([y/4,y]\) united with the primes dividing \(v\), taking \(a=\ell_1\), \(b=vm\), \(c=\ell_2\), and letting \(y\to\infty\), the result follows. By a more advanced argument, based on estimates for the number of zeros of \(L\)-functions in rectangles, the authors also prove that there are arbitrarily large sets of primes \(S\) with the property that there are at least \(\exp (s^{1/16})\) pairs of integers \((a,c)\) such that \(a+1=c\) and \(ac\) is composed of primes from \(S\).