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Czech-Slovak-Polish Match

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 qr−kqr - k is a multiple of pp, the number pr−kpr - k is a multiple of qq, and the number pq−kpq - 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+qr−kpq + 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+qr−k=n⋅pqrpq + pr + qr - k = n \cdot pqr, for a suitable integer nn, can be rewritten as k=pq+pr+qr−n⋅pqrk = pq + pr + qr - n \cdot pqr. If n≤0n \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 n≥1n \ge 1, then we get the estimate k≤pq+pr+qr−pqrk \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 2≤p<q<r2 \le p < q < r and r≥7r \ge 7. Then pq≥2⋅3=6pq \ge 2 \cdot 3 = 6 and the inequality (p−2)(q−2)≥0(p-2)(q-2) \ge 0 implies that p+q≤12pq+2p+q \le \frac{1}{2}pq + 2, hence
pq+pr+qr−pqr=(p+q)r+pq−pqr≤(12pq+2)r+pq−pqr=2r−pq(12r−1)≤2r−6(12r−1)=6−r<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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