On the abc$abc$ conjecture in algebraic number fields

Abstract

In this paper, we prove a weak form of the conjecture generalised to algebraic number fields. Given integers satisfying , Stewart and Yu were able to give an exponential bound in terms of the radical over the integers (Stewart and Yu [Math. Ann. 291 (1991), 225–230], Stewart and Yu [Duke Math. J. 108 (2001), no. 1, 169–181]), whereas Győry was able to give an exponential bound in the algebraic number field case for the projective height in terms of the radical for algebraic numbers (Győry [Acta Arith. 133 (2008), 281–295]). We generalise Stewart and Yu's method to give an improvement on Győry's bound for algebraic integers over the Hilbert Class Field of the initial number field K. Given algebraic integers in a number field K satisfying , we give an upper bound for the logarithm of the projective height in terms of norms of prime ideals dividing , where L is the Hilbert Class Field of K. In many cases, this allows us to give a bound in terms of the modified radical as given by Masser (Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 130 (2002), no. 11, 3141–3150). Furthermore, by employing a recent bound of Győry (Publ. Math. Debrecen 94 (2019), 507–526) on the solutions of S‐unit equations, our estimates imply the upper bound where is an effectively computable constant. Further, given conditions on the largest prime ideal dividing , we obtain a sub‐exponential bound for in terms of the radical. Independently, as a direct application of his bounds on the solutions of S‐unit equations(Győry ([Publ. Math. Debrecen 94 (2019), 507–526]), Győry (Publ. Math. Debrecen 100 (2022), 499–511) also attains results mentioned above, including the above inequality, but over the base field K, as discussed in Section 6. As a consequence of our results, we will give an application to the effective Skolem–Mahler–Lech problem and give an improvement to a result by Lagarias and Soundararajan (J. Théor. Nombres Bordeaux 23 (2011), no. 1, 209–234) on the XYZ conjecture.