Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /5 of 70

Number theory Difficulty 7.6 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Romania

Given two distinct square-free positive integers aa and bb, show that
{na}{nb}>cn3, |\{n\sqrt{a}\} - \{n\sqrt{b}\}| > c n^{-3},
for some positive constant cc and all positive integers nn.

Solution

Assume, without any loss, that a>ba > b, consider a positive integer nn, and let kn=nanbk_n = \lfloor n\sqrt{a} \rfloor - \lfloor n\sqrt{b} \rfloor. Since n(ab)n(\sqrt{a} - \sqrt{b}) is irrational, it follows that {na}{nb}\{n\sqrt{a}\} \neq \{n\sqrt{b}\}, so
0<{na}{nb}=n(ab)kn=Kn(n(a+b)kn)(n(a+b)+kn)(n(ab)+kn), \begin{aligned} 0 < |\{n\sqrt{a}\} - \{n\sqrt{b}\}| &= |n(\sqrt{a} - \sqrt{b}) - k_n| \\ &= \frac{K_n}{(n(\sqrt{a} + \sqrt{b}) - k_n)(n(\sqrt{a} + \sqrt{b}) + k_n)(n(\sqrt{a} - \sqrt{b}) + k_n)}, \end{aligned}
where KnK_n is a positive integer. Finally, notice that kn<na+nb<n(a+b)k_n < \lfloor n\sqrt{a} \rfloor + \lfloor n\sqrt{b} \rfloor < n(\sqrt{a} + \sqrt{b}), to obtain
{na}{nb}>1n(a+b)2n(a+b)(n(ab)+n(a+b))=14n3(a+b)2a=cn3,where c=14(a+b)2a>0. \begin{aligned} |\{n\sqrt{a}\} - \{n\sqrt{b}\}| &> \frac{1}{n(\sqrt{a} + \sqrt{b}) \cdot 2n(\sqrt{a} + \sqrt{b})(n(\sqrt{a} - \sqrt{b}) + n(\sqrt{a} + \sqrt{b}))} \\ &= \frac{1}{4n^3(\sqrt{a} + \sqrt{b})^2\sqrt{a}} = \frac{c}{n^3}, \quad \text{where } c = \frac{1}{4(\sqrt{a} + \sqrt{b})^2\sqrt{a}} > 0. \end{aligned}

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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