A Note on the Goormaghtigh Equation Concerning Difference Sets

Abstract

Let p be a prime and let r, s be positive integers. In this paper, we prove that the Goormaghtigh equation $(x^m-1)/(x-1)=(y^n-1)/(y-1)$ , $x,y,m,n \in {\mathbb {N}}$ , $\min \{x,y\}>1$ , $\min \{m,n\}>2$ with $(x,y)=(p^r,p^s+1)$ has only one solution $(x,y,m,n)=(2,5,5,3)$ . This result is related to the existence of some partial difference sets in combinatorics.