The analogue of Büchi's problem for function fields

Abstract: B"uchi's

n

Squares Problem asks for an integer

M

such that any sequence

(x_{0}, ..., x_{M - 1})

, whose second difference of squares is the constant sequence

(2)

(i.e.

x_{n}^{2} - 2 x_{n - 1}^{2} + x_{n - 2}^{2} = 2

for all

n

), satisfies

x_{n}^{2} = (x + n)^{2}

for some integer

x

. Hensley's problem for

r

-th powers (where

r

is an integer

g e q 2

) is a generalization of B"{u}chi's problem asking for an integer

M

such that, given integers

u

and

a

, the quantity

(u + n)^{r} - a

cannot be an

r

-th power for

M

or more values of the integer

n

, unless

a = 0

. The analogues of these problems for rings of functions consider only sequences with at least one non-constant term. Let

K

be a function field of a curve of genus

g

. We prove that Hensley's problem for

r

-th powers has a positive answer for any

r

if

K

has characteristic zero, improving results by Pasten and Vojta. In positive characteristic

p

we obtain a weaker result, but which is enough to prove that B"uchi's problem has a positive answer if

p g e q 312 g + 169

(improving results by Pheidas and the second author).

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(17)

This page was built for publication: The analogue of Büchi's problem for function fields