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Number theory Difficulty 7.7 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Turkey

Find all pairs of integers (a,b)(a, b) satisfying
a7(a1)=19b(19b+2). a^7(a-1) = 19b(19b+2).

Solution

(a,b)=(0,0)(a, b) = (0, 0) and (a,b)=(1,0)(a, b) = (1, 0).
By adding 11 to both sides of the given equation, we can rewrite it as
a8a7+1=(19b+1)2. a^8 - a^7 + 1 = (19b + 1)^2.
Left hand side of this equation has the following factorization:
a8a7+1=(a8a7+a6)(a61)=(a2a+1)(a6(a+1)(a31)). a^8 - a^7 + 1 = (a^8 - a^7 + a^6) - (a^6 - 1) = (a^2 - a + 1) \cdot (a^6 - (a+1)(a^3-1)).
Let d=gcd(a2a+1,a6(a+1)(a31))d = \text{gcd}(a^2 - a + 1, a^6 - (a+1)(a^3-1)). Since da2a+1d|a^2 - a + 1 we get d(a+1)(a2a+1)d|(a+1)(a^2 - a + 1) and da3+1d|a^3 + 1. Thus, a31(modd)a^3 \equiv -1 \pmod d. Therefore,
a6(a+1)(a31)1+2(a+1)2a+3(modd). a^6 - (a+1)(a^3-1) \equiv 1+2(a+1) \equiv 2a+3 \pmod d.
Now since da(2a+3)d|a(2a+3) and d2(a2a+1)d|2(a^2-a+1) we get that d(5a2)d|(5a-2). Finally, d2(5a2)d|2(5a-2) and d5(2a+3)d|5(2a+3) yield d19d|19, which means that either d=1d=1 or d=19d=19. Note that since d2(19b+1)2d^2|(19b+1)^2, d=19d=19 is not possible.
Thus, a2a+1a^2 - a + 1 and a6(a+1)(a31)a^6 - (a+1)(a^3 - 1) are coprime integers whose product is a perfect square. Therefore, each of them should be a perfect square. Note that (a1)2<a2a+1<a2(a-1)^2 < a^2 - a + 1 < a^2 for a>1a > 1, and (a1)2>a2a+1>a2(a-1)^2 > a^2 - a + 1 > a^2 for a<0a < 0. Hence, a2a+1a^2 - a + 1 is not a perfect square except a=0,1a=0, 1. Inserting a=0a=0 and a=1a=1 to the main equation we get two solutions: (a,b)=(0,0)(a, b) = (0, 0) and (a,b)=(1,0)(a, b) = (1, 0).

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