We describe an algorithmic reduction of the search for integral points on a curve y^2 = ax^4 + bx^2 + c with nonzero ac(b^2-4ac) to solving a finite number of Thue equations. While existence of such reduction is anticipated from arguments of algebraic number theory, our algorithm is elementary and to best of our knowledge is the first published algorithm of this kind. In combination with other methods and powered by existing software Thue equations solvers, it allows one to efficiently compute integral points on biquadratic curves.
We illustrate this approach with a particular application of finding near-multiples of squares in Lucas sequences. As an example, we establish that among Fibonacci numbers only 2 and 34 are of the form 2m^2+2; only 1, 13, and 1597 are of the form m^2-3; and so on.
As an auxiliary result, we also give an algorithm for solving a Diophantine equation k^2 = f(m,n)/g(m,n) in integers m,n,k, where f and g are homogeneous quadratic polynomials.
In this short paper, we prove, by only using elementary tools, general cases when $U_n(P,Q) \neq \square$, where $U_n(P,Q)$ is the Lucas sequence of the first type.
Let P and Q be non-zero relatively prime integers. The Lucas sequence {U_n(P,Q) is defined by U_0=0, U_1=1, U_n = P U_{n-1}-Q U_{n-2} for n>1. The sequence {U_n(1,-1)} is the familiar Fibonacci sequence, and it was proved by Cohn that the only perfect square greater than 1 in this sequence is $U_{12}=144$. The question arises, for which parameters P, Q, can U_n(P,Q) be a perfect square? In this paper, we complete recent results of Ribenboim and MacDaniel. Under the only restriction GCD(P,Q)=1 we determine all Lucas sequences {U_n(P,Q)} with U_{12}= square. It turns out that the Fibonacci seque…
Let P and Q be non-zero integers. The Lucas sequence U_n(P,Q), n=0,1,2,... is defined by U_0=0, U_1=1, U_n= P U_{n-1}-Q U_{n-2} for n>1. For each positive integer n<8 we describe all Lucas sequences with (P,Q)=1 having the property that U_n(P,Q) is a perfect square. The arguments are elementary. The main part of the paper is devoted to finding all Lucas sequences such that U_8(P,Q) is a perfect square. This reduces to a number of problems of similar type, namely, finding all points on an elliptic curve defined over a quartic number field subject to a ``Q-rationality'' condition on the X-coordi…
Let $(U_{n}(P,Q) $ and $(V_{n}(P,Q) $ denote the generalized Fibonacci and Lucas sequence, respectively. In this study, we assume that $Q=1.$ We determine all indices $n$ such that $U_{n}=5\square $ and $U_{n}=5U_{m}\square $ under some assumptions on $P.$ We show that the equation $V_{n}=5\square $ has the solution only if $n=1$ for the case when $% P$ is odd. Moreover, we show that the equation $V_{n}=5V_{m}\square $ has no solutions.
Let P and Q be non-zero integers. The Lucas sequence U_n(P,Q) is defined by U_0=0, U_1=1, U_n= P*U_{n-1}-Q*U_{n-2} for n >1. The question of when U_n(P,Q) can be a perfect square has generated interest in the literature. We show that for n=2,...,7, U_n is a square for infinitely many pairs (P,Q) with gcd(P,Q)=1; further, for n=8,...,12, the only non-degenerate sequences where gcd(P,Q)=1 and U_n(P,Q)=square, are given by U_8(1,-4)=21^2, U_8(4,-17)=620^2, and U_12(1,-1)=12^2.
(Below, \Box means "perfect square") Let $P$ and $Q$ be non-zero integers. The Lucas sequence $\{U_n(P,Q)\}$ is defined by $U_0=0$, $U_1=1$, $U_n=P U_{n-1}-Q U_{n-2}$, $(n \geq 2)$. Historically, there has been much interest in when the terms of such sequences are perfect squares (or higher powers). Here, we summarize results on this problem, and investigate for fixed $k$ solutions of $U_n(P,Q)= k\Box$, $(P,Q)=1$. We show finiteness of the number of solutions, and under certain hypotheses on $n$, describe explicit methods for finding solutions. These involve solving finitely many Thue-Mahler e…
For a Galois extension $K/F$ with $\text{char}(K)\neq 2$ and $\text{Gal}(K/F) \simeq \mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}\oplus\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$, we determine the $\mathbb{F}_2[\text{Gal}(K/F)]$-module structure of $K^\times/K^{\times 2}$. Although there are an infinite number of (pairwise non-isomorphic) indecomposable $\mathbb{F}_2[\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}\oplus\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}]$-modules, our decomposition includes at most $9$ indecomposable types. This paper marks the first time that the Galois module structure of power classes of a field has been fully determined when the modular representatio…
In this paper we discuss some relations between zeros of Lucas-Lehmer polynomials and Gray code. We study nested square roots of 2 applying a "binary code" that associates bits $0$ and $1$ to $\oplus$ and $\ominus$ signs in the nested form. This gives the possibility to obtain an ordering for the zeros of Lucas-Lehmer polynomials, which assume the form of nested square roots of 2.
We describe how to compute the intersection of two Lucas sequences of the forms $\{U_n(P,\pm 1) \}_{n=0}^{\infty}$ or $\{V_n(P,\pm 1) \}_{n=0}^{\infty}$ with $P\in\mathbb{Z}$ that includes sequences of Fibonacci, Pell, Lucas, and Lucas-Pell numbers. We prove that such an intersection is finite except for the case $U_n(1,-1)$ and $U_n(3,1)$ and the case of two $V$-sequences when the product of their discriminants is a perfect square. Moreover, the intersection in these cases also forms a Lucas sequence. Our approach relies on solving homogeneous quadratic Diophantine equations and Thue equation…
Balancing numbers $n$ are originally defined as the solution of the Diophantine equation $1+2+\cdots+(n-1)=(n+1)+\cdots+(n+r)$, where $r$ is called the balancer corresponding to the balancing number $n$. By slightly modifying, $n$ is the cobalancing number with the cobalancer $r$ if $1+2+\cdots+n=(n+1)+\cdots+(n+r)$. Let $B_n$ denote the $n^{th}$ balancing number and $b_n$ denote the $n^{th}$ cobalancing number. Then $8B_n^2+1$ and $8b_n^2+8b_n+1$ are perfect squares. The $n^{th}$ Lucas-balancing number $C_n$ and the $n^{th}$ Lucas-cobalancing number $c_n$ are the positive roots of $8B_n^2+1$ …
We consider the signature rank of the units in real multiquadratic fields. When the three quadratic subfields of a real biquadratic field $K$ either (a) all have signature rank 2 (that is, fundamental units of norm $-1$), or (b) all have signature rank 1 (that is, have totally positive fundamental units), we provide explicit examples to show there exist infinitely many $K$ having each of the possible unit signature ranks (namely signature rank 3 or 4 in case (a) and signature rank 1,2, or 3 in case (b)). We make some additional remarks for higher rank real multiquadratic fields, in particular …
Elliptic divisibility sequences (EDSs) are generalizations of a class of integer divisibility sequences called Lucas sequences. There has been much interest in cases where the terms of Lucas sequences are squares or cubes. In this work, using the Tate normal form having one parameter of elliptic curves with torsion points, the general terms and periods of all elliptic divisibility sequences with a zero term are given in terms of this parameter by means of Mazur's theorem, and it is shown that which term of h_{n} of an EDS can be a square or a cube by using the general terms of these sequences.
Let $ \{L_n\}_{n\ge 0} $ be the sequence of Lucas numbers given by $ L_0=2, ~ L_1=1 $ and $ L_{n+2}=L_{n+1}+L_n $ for all $ n\ge 0 $. In the first paper, for an integer $d\geq 2$ which is square-free, we show that there is at most one value of the positive integer $x$ participating in the Pell equation $x^{2}-dy^{2}=\pm 1$ which is a product of two Lucas numbers, with a few exceptions that we completely characterize. Let $ \{P_m\}_{m\ge 0} $ be the sequence of Pell numbers given by $ P_0=0, ~ P_1=1 $ and $ P_{m+2}=2P_{m+1}+P_m $ for all $ m\ge 0 $. In the second paper, for an integer $d\geq 2$…
We construct the sequences of Fibonacci and Lucas at any quadratic field $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d}\ )$ with $d>0$ square free, noting in general that the properties remain valid as those given by the classical sequences of Fibonacci and Lucas for the case $d = 5$, under the respective variants. For this construction, we use the fundamental unit of $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d}\ )$ and then we observe the generalizations for any unit of $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d}\ )$ where, under certain conditions, some of this constructions correspond to $k$-Fibonacci sequence for some $k\in \mathbb{N}$. Of course, for both sequ…
In this paper we consider divisibility sequences obtained from square matrices. We work with of matrix divisibility sequences associated to a semigroup and arising from endomorphisms of an affine space. We prove that determinant divisibility sequences originated from powers of square matrices are generalized Lucas sequences.
Let $g>1$ be an integer and $f(X)\in{\mathbb Z}[X]$ a polynomial of positive degree with no multiple roots, and put $u(n)=f(g^n)$. In this note, we study the sequence of quadratic fields ${\mathbb Q}(\sqrt{u(n)}\,)$ as $n$ varies over the consecutive integers $M+1,\ldots,M+N$. Fields of this type include Shanks fields and their generalizations. Using the square sieve together with new bounds on character sums, we improve an upper bound of Luca and Shparlinski (2009) on the number of $n \in \{M+1,\ldots,M+N\}$ with ${\mathbb Q}(\sqrt{u(n)}\,) = {\mathbb Q}(\sqrt{s}\,)$ for a given squarefree in…
In 2021, Guyer and Mbirika gave two equivalent formulas that computed the greatest common divisor (GCD) of all sums of $k$ consecutive terms in the generalized Fibonacci sequence $\left(G_n\right)_{n \geq 0}$ given by the recurrence $G_n = G_{n-1} + G_{n-2}$ for all $n \geq 2$ with integral initial conditions $G_0$ and $G_1$. In this current paper, we extend their results to the GCD of all sums of $k$ consecutive squares of these numbers. Denoting these GCD values by the symbol $\mathcal{G}_{G_0, G_1}^2\!(k)$, we prove $\mathcal{G}_{G_0, G_1}^2\!(k) = \gcd\left(G_k G_{k+1} - G_0 G_1,\; G_{k+1}…
Carmichael numbers of the form $2^n p^m+1$ with odd exponent $m$: refinements of a theorem of Florian Luca, a general independence lemma, and a computational study
D. S. Hong and P. Pongsriiam have provided a necessary and sufficient condition for the generating function for Fibonacci numbers (resp. the Lucas numbers) to be an integer value, for rational numbers. In other words, their results relate to the integer values of the generating functions of the sequences obtained from the integer solutions of Pell's equation $5x^{2}-y^{2}=\pm4$. If we change this Pell's equation to another type of Pell's equation, how will their results change? This is a natural and interesting problem. In this paper, we show that a result similar to theirs is obtained for the…