On Sidon sets with squares, cubes and quartics in short intervals

TL;DR

This paper investigates the distribution of solutions to equations involving sums of powers within short intervals, establishing bounds and existence results for various exponents.

Contribution

It provides new bounds and existence results for solutions to equations with sums of squares, cubes, and quartics in short intervals, highlighting differences between inequalities and actual solutions.

Findings

No solutions to certain cubic equations within specific short intervals for all N.

Existence of solutions within intervals of size proportional to N^{2/3} for all N.

Infinitely many N where solutions do not exist within intervals of size N^{4/7-\,epsilon}.

Abstract

Representative examples of our results are as follows. For any positive integer $N$ the equation $$ x^3+y^3=z^3+t^3, \quad x,y,z,t\in \mathbb{N}, \quad \{x,y\}\not=\{z,t\} $$ has no solutions satisfying $$ N\le x,y,z,t < N+\Bigl(\frac{38}{3}N+\frac{1297}{36}\Bigr)^{1/2}+\frac{19}{6}. $$ The strict inequality ``$<$" can not be substituted by ``$\le$", that is, there exist infinitely many positive integers $N$ such that the equation has a solution with $$ N\le x,y,z,t \le N+\Bigl(\frac{38}{3}N+\frac{1297}{36}\Bigr)^{1/2}+\frac{19}{6}. $$ There is an absolute constant $c>0$ such that for any positive integer $N$ the equation has a solution satisfying $$ N\le x,y,z,t \le N+cN^{2/3}. $$ For any $\varepsilon>0$ there exist infinitely many positive integers $N$ such that the equation has no solutions satisfying $$ N\le x,y,z,t \le N+N^{4/7-\varepsilon}. $$ There is an absolute constant $c>0$ such that for any positive integer $N$ the equation $$ x^4+y^4=z^4+t^4,\quad x,y,z,t\in\mathbb{N}, \quad \{x,y\}\not=\{z,t\}, $$ has no solutions satisfying $$ N\le x,y,z,t \le N+cN^{3/5}. $$ There is an absolute constant $c>0$ such that for any positive integer $N$ this equation has a solution satisfying $$ N\le x,y,z,t \le N+cN^{12/13}. $$