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dc.contributor.authorBatte, Herbert
dc.date.accessioned2022-04-11T09:30:10Z
dc.date.available2022-04-11T09:30:10Z
dc.date.issued2022-04-07
dc.identifier.citationBatte, H. (2022). Solutions to a non-linear Diophantine equation of Pillai type. Unpublished masters thesis, Makerere University , Kampala, Ugandaen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10570/10067
dc.descriptionA Dissertation submitted to the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Science in Mathematics of Makerere Universityen_US
dc.description.abstractLet $ \{F_n\}_{n\geq 0} $ be a sequence of Fibonacci numbers defined by $$ F_{0}=0, ~ F_{1}=1 ~~ \text{and} ~~ F_{n} = F_{n-1}+ F_{n-2} ~~ \text{for} ~~ n\geq 2. $$ In this research, we find all integers $c$ with at least three representations as a difference between a Fibonacci number and a perfect power of a prime. That is, we solve the non-linear diophantine equations $$c= F_{n_1}-p^{m_1} = F_{n_2}-p^{m_2} = F_{n_3}-p^{m_3}, $$ for a prime $p$, non negative distinct integers $n_1$, $ m_1 $, $ n_2 $, $m_2$, $n_3$, $m_3$ with $\min\{n_1, n_2 ,n_3\}\geq 2$ and $\min\{m_1, m_2, m_3\}\geq 0$. Throughout, we assume $\min\{n_1, n_2 ,n_3\}\geq 2$ to avoid trivial parametric families since $F_1 = F_2 = 1$, and $F_0 = 0$ will reduce the problem $c=F_n - p^m$ to $c=-p^m$. To solve the problem, we used several times a Baker-type lower bound for a non zero linear form in logarithms of algebraic numbers. There are many non zero linear forms in logarithms of algebraic numbers mentioned in the literature like that of Baker and W{\"u}stholz but we used one of Matveev. There was need to obtain upper bounds on $n_1$ and $p$, where we used a result of Loxton. These bounds were so large and hence use of Legendre method and Mathematic{\'a} software helped in obtaining lower bounds which were computationally handled using python to find solutions as $c \in \{-3,0,1\} $.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipEAUMPen_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherMakerere Universityen_US
dc.subjectPillai, Diophantine equation, Solutions to Pillai type equation, non-linear Diophantine equationen_US
dc.titleSolutions to a non-linear Diophantine equation of Pillai typeen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US


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