How sure can we be that $\underbrace {k\cdots k}_{m\ k’s}$ cannot be a perfect power

elementary-number-theorynumber theoryperfect-powers

Let $k$ and $m$ be integers , $m\ge 2$ and $k\in [1,9]$. Denote $$n=k\cdot \frac{10^m-1}{9}=\underbrace {k\cdots k}_{m\ k's}$$

As far as I know, it is unknown whether a rep-unit can be a cube.

How sure can we be that $n$ can never be a perfect power ?

Some cases are easy. For $k=2,4,5,6,9$ it can be shown that a perfect power is impossible. The case $k=8$ cannot give a perfect power if we assume that a rep-unit cannot be a cube. A square can be easily ruled out.

I have checked that for $m\le 10^4$, we do not have a perfect power.

Best Answer

This problem was completely solved by Bugeaud and Mignotte (see http://irma.math.unistra.fr/~bugeaud/travaux/chiffresrev.ps) in a paper in Mathematika in 1999; see Theorem 2. Their approach is based upon bounds for linear forms in $p$-adic logarithms.