For how many positive integers $m$ the number $m^3+5m^2+3$ is a perfect cube

diophantine equationselementary-number-theorynumber theorypolynomials

For how many positive integers $m$ the number $m^3+5m^2+3$ is a perfect cube?

What if $m$ is a negative integer?

It intuitively seems to me that no positive integer can satisfy the given condition, but I can't prove it mathematically.

Best Answer

We only need to check a finite number of cases: when $|m|$ becomes large enough $f(m)=5m^2+3$ will always lie between $g(m)=3m^2+3m+1=(m+1)^3-m^3$ and $h(m)=6m^2+12m+8=(m+2)^3-m^3$, and so $m^3+5m^2+3$ is between two consecutive cubes.

$h(m)-f(m)$ is positive for $m\le-12$ and $m\ge0$, while $f(m)-g(m)$ is always positive. Therefore, we only need check $-11\le m\le-1$ inclusive, and this reveals that no $m$ is such that $m^3+5m^2+3$ is a perfect cube.