Hall's conjecture
In mathematics, Hall's conjecture is an open question on the differences between perfect squares and perfect cubes. It asserts that a perfect square y2 and a perfect cube x3 that are not equal must lie a substantial distance apart. This question arose from consideration of the Mordell equation in the theory of integer points on elliptic curves.
The original version of Hall's conjecture, formulated by Marshall [Hall, Jr.] in 1970, says that there is a positive constant C such that for any integers x and y for which y2 ≠ x3,
Hall suggested that perhaps C could be taken as 1/5, which was consistent with all the data known at the time the conjecture was proposed. Danilov showed in 1982 that the exponent 1/2 on the right side cannot be replaced by any higher power: for no δ > 0 is there a constant C such that |y2 − x3| > C|x|1/2 + δ whenever y2 ≠ x3.
In 1965, Davenport proved an analogue of the above conjecture in the case of polynomials:
if f and g are nonzero polynomials over the complex numbers C such that
g3 ≠ f2 in C, then
The weak form of Hall's conjecture, stated by Stark and Trotter around 1980, replaces the square root on the right side of the inequality by any exponent less than 1/2: for any ε > 0, there is some constant c depending on ε such that for any integers x and y for which y2 ≠ x3,
The original, strong, form of the conjecture with exponent 1/2 has never been disproved, although it is no longer believed to be true and the term Hall's conjecture now generally means the version with the ε in it. For example, in 1998, Noam Elkies found the example
4478849284284020423079182 − 58538865167812233 = -1641843,
for which compatibility with Hall's conjecture would require C to be less than.0214 ≈ 1/50, so roughly 10 times smaller than the original choice of 1/5 that Hall suggested.
The weak form of Hall's conjecture would follow from the ABC conjecture. A generalization to other perfect powers is Pillai's conjecture, though it is also known that Pillai's conjecture would be true if Hall's conjecture held for any specific 0 < ε < 1/2.
The table below displays the known cases with. Note that y can be computed as the
nearest integer to x3/2. This list is known to contain all examples with but may be incomplete past that point.
| # | x | r | |
| 1 | 2 | 1.41 | |
| 2 | 5234 | 4.26 | |
| 3 | 8158 | 3.76 | |
| 4 | 93844 | 1.03 | |
| 5 | 367806 | 2.93 | |
| 6 | 421351 | 1.05 | |
| 7 | 720114 | 3.77 | |
| 8 | 939787 | 3.16 | |
| 9 | 28187351 | 4.87 | |
| 10 | 110781386 | 1.23 | |
| 11 | 154319269 | 1.08 | |
| 12 | 384242766 | 1.34 | |
| 13 | 390620082 | 1.33 | |
| 14 | 3790689201 | 2.20 | |
| 15 | 65589428378 | 2.19 | |
| 16 | 952764389446 | 1.15 | |
| 17 | 12438517260105 | 1.27 | |
| 18 | 35495694227489 | 1.15 | |
| 19 | 53197086958290 | 1.66 | |
| 20 | 5853886516781223 | 46.60 | |
| 21 | 12813608766102806 | 1.30 | |
| 22 | 23415546067124892 | 1.46 | |
| 23 | 38115991067861271 | 6.50 | |
| 24 | 322001299796379844 | 1.04 | |
| 25 | 471477085999389882 | 1.38 | |
| 26 | 810574762403977064 | 4.66 | |
| 27 | 9870884617163518770 | 1.90 | |
| 28 | 42532374580189966073 | 3.47 | |
| 29 | 44648329463517920535 | 1.79 | |
| 30 | 51698891432429706382 | 1.75 | |
| 31 | 231411667627225650649 | 3.71 | |
| 32 | 601724682280310364065 | 1.88 | |
| 33 | 4996798823245299750533 | 2.17 | |
| 34 | 5592930378182848874404 | 1.38 | |
| 35 | 14038790674256691230847 | 1.27 | |
| 36 | 77148032713960680268604 | 10.18 | |
| 37 | 180179004295105849668818 | 5.65 | |
| 38 | 372193377967238474960883 | 1.33 | |
| 39 | 664947779818324205678136 | 16.53 | |
| 40 | 2028871373185892500636155 | 1.14 | |
| 41 | 10747835083471081268825856 | 1.35 | |
| 42 | 37223900078734215181946587 | 1.38 | |
| 43 | 69586951610485633367491417 | 1.22 | |
| 44 | 3690445383173227306376634720 | 1.51 | |
| 45 | 133545763574262054617147641349 | 1.69 | |
| 46 | 162921297743817207342396140787 | 10.65 | |
| 47 | 374192690896219210878121645171 | 2.97 | |
| 48 | 401844774500818781164623821177 | 1.29 | |
| 49 | 500859224588646106403669009291 | 1.06 | |
| 50 | 1114592308630995805123571151844 | 1.04 | |
| 51 | 39739590925054773507790363346813 | 3.75 | |
| 52 | 862611143810724763613366116643858 | 1.10 | |
| 53 | 1062521751024771376590062279975859 | 1.006 | |
| 54 | 6078673043126084065007902175846955 | 1.03 |