Conjecture on multiple roots of sums of products of consecutive integers

Let ninNnin\mathbb{N} and let T=(a1,,ak)AnT=(a_{1},\ldots,a_{k})\in A_{n}, where AnA_n is the set of strictly increasing tuples with entries less than nn. Define

gT(x)=pn(x)+i=1kpai(x),pa(x)=i=0a(x+i).g_T(x)=p_n(x)+\sum_{i=1}^k p_{a_i}(x),\qquad p_a(x)=\prod_{i=0}^{a}(x+i).

Multiple-root conjecture. The polynomial gT(x)g_T(x) has multiple roots if and only if one of the following holds: (1) T=(n4)T=(n-4) for n4n\geq4, with (x2+(2n3)x+n23n+1)2gT(x)(x^2+(2n-3)x+n^2-3n+1)^2\mid g_T(x); (2) T=(n3,n2)T=(n-3,n-2) for n3n\geq3, with (x+n1)3gT(x)(x+n-1)^3\mid g_T(x); or (3) T=(n2,n1)T=(n-2,n-1) for n2n\geq2, with (x+n)2gT(x)(x+n)^2\mid g_T(x). In each case, the corresponding cofactor has no multiple roots. The conjecture is motivated by computations and is intended to characterize the multiple-root configurations governing finiteness results for the associated Diophantine equations; no proof or resolution is supplied.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Szabolcs Tengely and Maciej Ulas, “Power values of sums of certain products of consecutive integers and related results”, arXiv:1809.04304 (2018).

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