In 1842 the Belgian mathematician Eugene Charles Catalan asked whether 8 and 9 are the only consecutive pure powers of non-zero integers. 160 years after, the question was answered affirmatively by the Swiss mathematician of Romanian origin Preda Mihailescu. In other words, 32 - 23 = 1 is the only solution of the equation xp - yq = 1 in integers x, y, p, q with xy 0 and p, q 2. In this book we give a complete and (almost) self-contained exposition of Mihailescu's work, which must be understandable by a curious university student, not necessarily specializing in Number Theory. We assume a very modest background:a standard university course of algebra, including basic Galois theory, and working knowledge of basic algebraic number theory.

In 1842 the Belgian mathematician Eugène Charles Catalan asked whether 8 and 9 are the only consecutive pure powers of non-zero integers. 160 years after, the question was answered affirmatively by the Swiss mathematician of Romanian origin Preda Mihăilescu. In other words, 32 – 23 = 1 is the only solution of the equation xp – yq = 1 in integers x, y, p, q with xy ≠ 0 and p, q ≥ 2. In this book we give a complete and (almost) self-contained exposition of Mihăilescu’s work, which must be understandable by a curious university student, not necessarily specializing in Number Theory. We assume a very modest background:a standard university course of algebra, including basic Galois theory, and working knowledge of basic algebraic number theory.

This book corresponds to a mathematical course given in 1986/87 at the University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg. This work is primarily intended for graduate students. The following are necessary prerequisites : a few standard definitions in set theory, the definition of rational integers, some elementary facts in Combinatorics (maybe only Newton's binomial formula), some theorems of Analysis at the level of high schools, and some elementary Algebra (basic results about groups, rings, fields and linear algebra). An important place is given to exercises. These exercises are only rarely direct applications of the course. More often, they constitute complements to the text. Mostly, hints or references are given so that the reader should be able to find solutions. Chapters one and two deal with elementary results of Number Theory, for example : the euclidean algorithm, the Chinese remainder theorem and Fermat's little theorem. These results are useful by themselves, but they also constitute a concrete introduction to some notions in abstract algebra (for example, euclidean rings, principal rings ... ). Algorithms are given for arithmetical operations with long integers. The rest of the book, chapters 3 through 7, deals with polynomials. We give general results on polynomials over arbitrary rings. Then polynomials with complex coefficients are studied in chapter 4, including many estimates on the complex roots of polynomials. Some of these estimates are very useful in the subsequent chapters.