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Number theory Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Czech Republic

Show that for each natural number kk there exist at most finitely many triples of mutually distinct primes p,q,rp, q, r for which the number qrkqr - k is a multiple of pp, the number prkpr - k is a multiple of qq, and the number pqkpq - k is a multiple of rr.

Solution

(Mutually distinct) primes p,q,rp, q, r satisfy the desired conditions if and only if the number pq+pr+qrkpq + pr + qr - k is divisible by each of the primes p,q,rp, q, r; that is, by the product pqrpqr. The equality pq+pr+qrk=npqrpq + pr + qr - k = n \cdot pqr, for a suitable integer nn, can be rewritten as k=pq+pr+qrnpqrk = pq + pr + qr - n \cdot pqr. If n0n \le 0, then the last equality implies that max{pq,pr,qr}k\max\{pq, pr, qr\} \le k; however, then each of the primes p,q,rp, q, r is less than or equal to k/2k/2 (and there is only a finite number of such triples).

If n1n \ge 1, then we get the estimate kpq+pr+qrpqrk \le pq + pr + qr - pqr. Let us show that the last expression is negative (contradicting the fact that k>0k > 0) unless the triple in question is {p,q,r}={2,3,5}\{p, q, r\} = \{2, 3, 5\}. We can assume that 2p<q<r2 \le p < q < r and r7r \ge 7. Then pq23=6pq \ge 2 \cdot 3 = 6 and the inequality (p2)(q2)0(p-2)(q-2) \ge 0 implies that p+q12pq+2p+q \le \frac{1}{2}pq + 2, hence
pq+pr+qrpqr=(p+q)r+pqpqr(12pq+2)r+pqpqr=2rpq(12r1)2r6(12r1)=6r<0. pq + pr + qr - pqr = (p+q)r + pq - pqr \le (\frac{1}{2}pq + 2)r + pq - pqr \\ = 2r - pq(\frac{1}{2}r - 1) \le 2r - 6(\frac{1}{2}r - 1) = 6 - r < 0.

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