Find all pairs of prime numbers for which there exist positive integers such that
Solution
The only divisor and can have in common is , because and are different prime numbers. Indeed, a divisor of and is also a divisor of and of . And we know that , so must be a divisor of .
Since each prime divisor of or must also be a prime divisor of the other, because of the equation, we now know that and are both powers of (unequal to ). But the greatest common divisor is , so the smallest of the two (and this must be ) is equal to . So and is a power of . So there is exactly one number between and , namely . Since is a power of two, is not divisible by . So is also not divisible by . Since of three consecutive numbers, one must be divisible by , it follows that or is divisible by . Since is not a prime number, the minimum of and must equal and the other must equal . We find two solutions, and , both of which satisfy the equation.