Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Determine the integers xx such that 2x+x2+252^x + x^2 + 25 is the cube of a prime number.

Solution

Let yy be a prime such that y3=2x+x2+25y^3 = 2^x + x^2 + 25; clearly, yy is odd. Moreover, xx can not be a negative integer nor can it belong to the set {0,1,2,3}\{0, 1, 2, 3\}. Hence x4x \ge 4 is even.

1. If x=6kx = 6k, with kNk \in \mathbb{N}^*, we get 64k+36k2+25=y364^k + 36k^2 + 25 = y^3.

For k=1k=1 we get x=6x=6 and y=5y=5.

For k2k \ge 2 we have no solutions because of the following inequalities:
(4k)3<y3=26k+(6k)2+25<(4k+1)3, (4^k)^3 < y^3 = 2^{6k} + (6k)^2 + 25 < (4^k + 1)^3,
the second inequality being equivalent with 3k2+2<4k1(4k+1)3k^2 + 2 < 4^{k-1}(4^k + 1), which is true (induction).

2. If x=6k+2x = 6k + 2 or x=6k+4x = 6k + 4 then: 2x1(mod3)2^x \equiv 1 \pmod 3, x21(mod3)x^2 \equiv 1 \pmod 3 hence 2x+x2+250(mod3)2^x + x^2 + 25 \equiv 0 \pmod 3, i.e. y30(mod3)y^3 \equiv 0 \pmod 3, which means y0(mod3)y \equiv 0 \pmod 3 and, as yy is prime, we get y=3y = 3, which does not fulfill the condition.

In conclusion, the only solution is x=6x = 6.

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