Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it New Zealand

Problem:
Find all triples (x,p,n)(x,p,n) of non-negative integers such that pp is prime and
2x(x+5)=pn+3(x1).2x(x + 5) = p^{n} + 3(x - 1).

Solution

Solution:
The equation rearranges to be
pn=2x(x+5)3(x1)=2x2+7x+3=(2x+1)(x+3).p^{n} = 2x(x + 5) - 3(x - 1) = 2x^{2} + 7x + 3 = (2x + 1)(x + 3).
Since xx is a non-negative integer, both factors (2x+1)(2x + 1) and (x+3)(x + 3) must be positive integers. Therefore both (2x+1)(2x + 1) and (x+3)(x + 3) are both powers of pp. Let
2x+1=pa2x + 1 = p^{a}
x+3=pb.x + 3 = p^{b}.
Now note that gcd(2x+1,x+3)=gcd(x2,x+3)=gcd(5,x+3)\gcd (2x + 1, x + 3) = \gcd (x - 2, x + 3) = \gcd (5, x + 3) which must equal either 11 or 55 (because 55 is prime). We consider each case individually:

If gcd(2x+1,x+3)=5\gcd (2x + 1, x + 3) = 5 then p=5p = 5 and min(a,b)=1\min (a, b) = 1. Thus either 2x+1=52x + 1 = 5 or x+3=5x + 3 = 5. Either way we get x=2x = 2. This leads to pn=25p^{n} = 25 and so (x,p,n)=(2,5,2)(x, p, n) = (2, 5, 2).

If gcd(2x+1,x+3)=1\gcd (2x + 1, x + 3) = 1 then min(a,b)=0\min (a, b) = 0. Thus 2x+1=12x + 1 = 1 or x+3=1x + 3 = 1. So either x=0x = 0 or x=2x = -2. We can't have x<0x < 0 so we must have x=0x = 0. This leads to pn=3p^{n} = 3 and so (x,p,n)=(0,3,1)(x, p, n) = (0, 3, 1).

Therefore the only solutions for (x,p,n)(x, p, n) are (2,5,2)(2, 5, 2) and (0,3,1)(0, 3, 1).

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.