Diophantine equations concerning balancing and Lucas balancing numbers

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the sequence of balancing and Lucas balancing numbers. The balancing numbers \({B_n}\) are given by the recurrence \({B_n = 6 B_{n-1} - B_{n-2}}\) with initial conditions \({B_0 = 0, B_1 = 1}\) and its associated Lucas balancing numbers \({C_n}\) are given by the recurrence \({C_n = 6 C_{n-1} - C_{n-2}}\) with initial conditions \({C_0 = 1, C_1 = 3}\). First we find the perfect powers in the sequence of balancing and Lucas balancing numbers. We also identify those Lucas balancing numbers which are products of a power of 3 and a perfect power. Using this property of Lucas balancing numbers, we solve a conjecture regarding the non-existence of positive integral solution (x, y) for the Diophantine equation \({2x^2 + 1 = 3^b y^m}\) for any even positive integers b and m with \({m > 2}\), given in (Int J Number Theory 11:1259–1274, 2015). Also we prove that the Diophantine equations \({B_n B_{n+d} \ldots B_{n+(k-1)d} = y^m}\) and \({C_n C_{n+d} \ldots C_{n+(k-1)d} = y^m}\) have no solution for any positive integers n, d, k, y, and m with \({m \geq 2, y \geq 2}\) and gcd\({(n,d) = 1}\).