Generalized GCDs as Applications of Vojta’s Conjecture

Abstract

Starting with an analysis of the result that for any coprime integers a and b, and some ϵ > 0, we have eventually that gcd(a^n − 1,b^n − 1) < a^ϵn holds for all n, we are motivated to look for geometric reasons why this should hold. After some discussion on the general geometry and arithmetic needed to examine these questions, we take a quick look into how Vojta’s conjectures provide a generalization of our first result. In particular, we also note a case where this implies a similar equality on particular elliptic curves.