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Number theory Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Bulgaria

Is it true that for any positive integer n>1n > 1, there exists an infinite arithmetic progression MnM_n of positive integers, such that for any mMnm \in M_n, the number nm1n^m - 1 is not a perfect power (a positive integer is a perfect power if it is of the form aba^b for positive integers a,b>1a, b > 1)?

Solution

(Victor Kostadinov) The answer is yes. Fix a positive integer nn and two large distinct primes p,q>np, q > n. Let dp=ordp(n)d_p = \text{ord}_p(n), dq=ordq(n)d_q = \text{ord}_q(n), cp=νp(ndp1)c_p = \nu_p(n^{d_p} - 1), cq=νq(ndq1)c_q = \nu_q(n^{d_q} - 1) and let c=νp(dq)c = \nu_p(d_q), d=νq(dp)d = \nu_q(d_p). Pick two sufficiently large constants a,ba, b, and let M:=dpdqp(a1)cp+bcqcqacp+(b1)cq+1dM := d_p d_q p^{(a-1)c_p + bc_q - c} q^{ac_p + (b-1)c_q + 1 - d} and finally choose MnM_n to consist of m=M(1+iM)m = M(1 + iM) for i=1,2,i = 1, 2, \dots.

By LTE, we have
νp(nm1)=νp(ndp1)+νp(mdp)=cp+c+(a1)cp+bcqc=acp+bcq \nu_p(n^m - 1) = \nu_p(n^{d_p} - 1) + \nu_p\left(\frac{m}{d_p}\right) = c_p + c + (a-1)c_p + bc_q - c = ac_p + bc_q
(we used that gcd(1+iM,p)=1\text{gcd}(1 + iM, p) = 1) and similarly νq(nm1)=acp+bcq+1\nu_q(n^m - 1) = ac_p + bc_q + 1, which are consecutive, i.e. they can't have a common divisor greater than 1 and thus nm1n^m - 1 can't be a perfect power. \square

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