Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /6 of 21

Number theory Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it Czech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match

Find all positive real numbers cc such that there are infinitely many pairs of positive integers (n,m)(n, m) satisfying the following conditions: nm+cm1+1n \ge m + c\sqrt{m-1} + 1 and among numbers n,n+1,,2nmn, n+1, \dots, 2n-m there is no square of an integer.

Solution

We prove that cc satisfies the condition in the statement if and only if c2c \le 2.

Let us first consider any c2c \le 2. For any positive integer kk, define
n=k2+1andm=(k1)2+1 n = k^2 + 1 \quad \text{and} \quad m = (k-1)^2 + 1
Observe that
m+cm1+1k22k+2+2(k1)+1=k2+1=n m + c\sqrt{m-1} + 1 \le k^2 - 2k + 2 + 2(k-1) + 1 = k^2 + 1 = n
and
(n,n+1,,2nm)=(k2+1,k2+2,,k2+2k). (n, n+1, \dots, 2n-m) = (k^2+1, k^2+2, \dots, k^2+2k).
Therefore, every such pair (n,m)(n, m) indeed satisfies the property from the problem statement, and there are infinitely many such pairs.

Now let us consider any c>2c > 2, and let (n,m)(n, m) be any pair of positive integers satisfying the property from the problem statement. Observe that for each positive integer nn, the number n2\lceil\sqrt{n}\rceil^2 is always between numbers nn and (n+1)2(\sqrt{n}+1)^2 (inclusive), hence there is always a square of an integer in the range
n,n+1,,n+2n+1. n, n+1, \dots, n + \lfloor 2\sqrt{n} \rfloor + 1.
This implies that 2nm<n+2n+12n - m < n + \lfloor 2\sqrt{n} \rfloor + 1, so in particular
mn2n. m \ge n - 2\sqrt{n}.
Combining this with the inequality from the problem statement yields
nn2n+cn2n1+1.(1) n \ge n - 2\sqrt{n} + c\sqrt{n - 2\sqrt{n} - 1} + 1. \quad (1)
Observe that since c>2c > 2, we have cn2n1>2nc\sqrt{n - 2\sqrt{n} - 1} > 2\sqrt{n} for large enough nn. Indeed, equivalently we have 12n1n>4c21 - \frac{2}{\sqrt{n}} - \frac{1}{n} > \frac{4}{c^2}, and the left-hand side tends to 1 as nn grows to infinity while the right hand side is strictly smaller than 1. This implies that (1) may be satisfied only for finitely many positive integers nn. Since mnm \le n for all pairs (n,m)(n, m) satisfying the conditions from the problem statement, this implies that there are only finitely many such pairs (n,m)(n, m). \square

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.