On a criterion for Catalan's Conjecture

Abstract

We give a new proof of a theorem by P. Mihailescu which states that the equation $x^p-y^q=1$ is unsolvable with $x, y$ integral and $p, q$ odd primes, unless the congruences $p^q \equiv p\pmod{q^2}$ and $q^p\equiv q \pmod{p^2}$ hold.